Stargate SG-1 Season 3
Executive producers: Jonathan Glassner & Brad Wright, Michael Greenburg, Richard Dean Anderson
Original air dates: June 25, 1999 – March 10, 2000
Mission briefing. After seeing through Hathor’s deception, SG-1 manages to permanently stop the Goa’uld, with the help of a Tok’ra agent, who sacrifices her life. Another Goa’uld is discovered on Earth, having stayed on the planet and keeping his head down as a cult leader: Seth. SG-1, with Jacob Carter, dispatches him as well.
The Asgard agree to make Earth one of their protected planets, and negotiate with three Goa’uld representatives: Cronus, Yu, and Nirrti. The negotiations are soured by Teal’c’s history with Cronus—that particular System Lord killed Teal’c’s father, which is why Teal’c went into service as a Jaffa with Apophis, Cronus’s greatest enemy. They’re soured further by the Goa’uld insistence that the Stargates be buried, but SG-1 revealing Nirrti’s treachery improves their negotiating position, and the Asgard protects them while allowing them to keep the Stargate. (Though Cronus reminds them that the protection ends the minute they step offworld.)
Indeed, they still have plenty of dealings with the Goa’uld. SG-1 is captured by a mercenary working for Sokar and forced to help him capture a Goa’uld—but instead they’re hunting a Tok’ra. The team also stumbles across an old plan of Apophis’s to infiltrate the SGC with brainwashed humans, whom they have to convince that Apophis is dead. Which is all the more impressive because Apophis isn’t dead—Sokar used a sarcophagus to resurrect him and banished him to the planet literally called Hell, where he had to serve Sokar. But with the unwitting help of SG-1 and the Tok’ra, Apophis is able to kill Sokar and take over his forces.
Two other encounters hit much closer to home. SG-1 tracks down Amaunet, still using Sha’re as a host, and Teal’c is forced to kill her to save Jackson. However, before she dies, Sha’re is able to get a message to Jackson telling him to look after the child she gave birth to, known as the Harcesis, a human born with the genetic memory of the Goa’uld. Eventually, with help from both Bra’tac and a series of gate addresses the SGC received from the Asgard that the Goa’uld don’t know about, SG-1 finds the mythical world of Kheb. Jackson has his first encounter with ascended beings in general and Oma Desala in particular (and hoo hah is it far from his last).
Also Klorel crash lands on Tollana, and the Tollan hold a hearing to determine the whether or not Klorel should be removed from Skaara’s body, with Jackson arguing against the Goa’uld Zipacna. Jackson wins the argument, and Klorel is returned to the Goa’uld without a host, while Skaara returns to Abydos.
Past missions come back to haunt SG-1 as well. A weapon made by Machello (from season 2’s “Holiday”) messes with Jackson’s head, the quantum mirror that sent Jackson to an alternate reality (in season 1’s “There But for the Grace of God…”) allows Kawalsky and Carter from another reality to come through to our world, and SG-1 encounters Linea, destroyer of worlds (from season 2’s “Prisoners”), except she’s lost her memory (and her old age) and now goes by Ke’ra.
The NID remains a threat, though when a contingent of aliens take over the SGC and disguises themselves as its personnel, Carter (who along with Teal’c is immune to the aliens’ technology) has to ask the NID for help, to mediocre results. Maybourne’s rogue NID operation is caught stealing technology from the Asgard and the Tollan, but O’Neill goes undercover to shut them down (and preserve two valuable alliances).
Plus, of course, there’s the usual seeking out new life and new civilizations. (Ahem.) There’s a planet where the adults literally learn from their children, a planet that has an AI that won’t leave SG-1 alone, a planet that is divided by differences in belief about who used the Stargate to imprison them with SG-1’s presence risking turning a culture war into an actual war, a world that they try to rescue from an asteroid shower instead has its gate destroyed with O’Neill trapped there for a hundred days, and a planet where our heroes are considered demons and witches.
On a personal level, Carter manages to get her father and brother to talk to each other again, Jackson loses Sha’re but reconnects with his eccentric grandfather, and O’Neill falls in love and helps save Skaara.
The season ends with the biggest game-changer yet, as a new foe is introduced: the Replicators, a foe so deadly, even the Asgard can’t stop them…
Best episode: This is a tough one, as this season has several really good episodes, but nothing that particularly stands out. If forced to choose a best, I’d have to go with “Shades of Gray,” just because it was so enjoyable, and had such a satisfying ending. Richard Dean Anderson’s performance is superb—indeed, he’s playing an O’Neill who’s much closer to Kurt Russell’s interpretation of the character—and the episode makes excellent use of several previously established elements (the Tollan unwillingness to share technology, the Asgard’s power, Maybourne’s skeeviness, the NID’s shadowy agenda, O’Neill’s occasional militancy, not to mention his desire to retire to the planet he spent a hundred days on just one episode previous).
Honorable mention to “Fair Game,” which gives us our first look at the greater tapestry of Goa’uld politics, and introduces three interesting new Goa’uld in Nirrti, Yu, and Cronus; “Learning Curve,” which has a nifty science fictional premise of kids learning then dumping the nanites and becoming ciphers, with a really strong performance by Brittney Irvin as little Merrin; “Forever in a Day,” the heartbreaking tale of Jackson finally losing Sha’re; and “Nemesis,” a sharp, thrilling action piece that introduces the Replicators with style.
There are also a lot of good, solid adventure stories here, a particularly solid bunch of them. Nothing that stands out as the best ever, but all rollicking tales: “Seth,” which puts a Stargate spin on the cult-leader cliché (and watching O’Neill mess with the ATF guy is kinda fun); “Deadman Switch,” another cliché story elevated by a superlative performance by Sam Jones; “Jolinar’s Memories” and “The Devil You Know,” taking advantage of its two-part structure to give the characters (particularly Carter) some excellent bits, and also brings Apophis back as the big bad in impressive fashion; “Foothold,” a solid alien-invasion story; “Pretense,” a very Stargate-y courtroom drama (with some excellent scenery chewing by Kevin Durand as Zipacna while wearing the stupidest hat ever); and “Crystal Skull,” a good vehicle for Michael Shanks as an out-of-phase Jackson, and a fun little adventure.
Worst episode: “Maternal Instinct.” I was always a little iffy on the ascended folks and their insistence on spouting vague sub-fortune-cookie nonsense to the point of self-parody. It’s to the show’s credit that they hung a lantern on it as time went on, and even made it clear that their behavior is actually pretty crummy, all things considered, but in this episode that introduces ascension, it’s a friggin’ disaster, with poor Terry Chen reduced to uttering gibberish that substitutes for profound. And then on top of that, Jackson’s “journey” is all a fake to get him to turn over the Harcesis. Snore.
Dishonorable mention to “A Hundred Days” and its sodden romance (wasting a very good actor in Michelle Greene); “Legacy,” which focuses so much on being an acting exercise for Michael Shanks that it forgets to tell an interesting story (this will happen again in season 7’s “Lifeboat”); and “Demons,” which proves that the Unas just aren’t that interesting (which won’t stop the writers from doing Unas-focused episodes over and over again).
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The SGC is able to construct a naquadah generator, thanks to the Orbanians, and that tech will prove hugely useful going forward. The stun-weapons known as Intars, used by the brainwashed fake SG teams that Apophis has trained to infiltrate the SGC will also prove useful in the future, while the memory aids used by Hathor in the season 2 finale are also used by the Tok’ra to help bring Jolinar’s memories into Carter’s conscious mind.
For cryin’ out loud! O’Neill gets to be implanted with a Goa’uld by Hathor, has to lead the negotiations with the Goa’uld over becoming an Asgard protected planet, falls in love while stuck on a planet for a hundred days, goes undercover to stop the NID, and is asked by Thor to help fight the Replicators. Busy year…
It might work, sir. Carter gets a well-deserved promotion to major early in the season while also getting to work with her father on several missions. Her blending with Jolinar proves particularly useful on one of those missions, when they have to rescue him from Sokar’s prison, plus that blending makes her immune to the aliens who invade the SGC.
I speak 23 different languages—pick one. Not a banner year for Jackson: an old weapon of Machello’s makes him crazy and his wife dies (but she gives him a new purpose before she does). However, he does get to prove his grandfather’s crazy theories right and find out about ascension, which will prove useful down the road…
Indeed. Teal’c gives a rousing speech in the season premiere that is his first real attempt to expand the Jaffa rebellion beyond himself and Bra’tac. We also learn that his father was killed by Cronus, under whom he served as First Prime, and Teal’c has sworn revenge against Cronus for the act.
You have a go. Hammond finally gets to go offworld, as his response to being told to stop using resources to find SG-1 is to go to Chulak and ask for Teal’c and Bra’tac’s help. He gets to copilot a Goa’uld Needle ship, fire weapons, and scream “Yeeeeehaw!” which is pretty awesome.
Wayward home for out-of-work genre actors. Sam Jones, best known for playing the title role in the 1980 Flash Gordon, shows up in “Deadman Switch” as Aris Boch. Megan Leitch, who had the recurring role of Samantha Mulder on The X-Files, plays the younger version of Linea in “Past and Present.” Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge both do voice work, the former as Thor, the latter as the Unas.
Trivial matters. Fraiser says that Jackson has no family history of mental illness in “Legacy,” yet we meet his institutionalized grandfather in “Crystal Skull.”
We finally meet Sokar, who’s played by David Palffy. Sokar is covered in burns, and because of that, there was some confusion when Palffy was later cast as Anubis, who is also covered in lesions and such.
While Robert Duncan’s Seth is killed in the episode in which he’s introduced, the System Lords we meet in “Fair Game” (Vince Crestejo’s Yu, Jacqueline Samuda’s Nirrti, and Ron Halder’s Cronus) will all recur for many more episodes. (Duncan previously played the image of Jackson’s father in season 2’s “The Gameskeeper.”)
The Goa’uld will continue to honor the protected planets treaty signed in “Fair Game” in theory, but in practice they will try to find workarounds (notably in “Between Two Fires” and “Failsafe”).
Famous comedian Dom DeLuise was cast in the title role of “Urgo,” which is a bit of nepotism, as Dom’s son Peter is at this point one of SG-1’s most prolific directors (he directed seven third-season episodes, including the one his father guested in), and would in the fourth season become a prolific writer as well. Having said that, it’s Dom freakin’ DeLuise…
Hammond orders the quantum mirror destroyed at the end of “Point of View,” so it can’t be used again.
The giant aliens who are apparent enemies of the Goa’uld in “Crystal Skull” are never seen nor mentioned onscreen again.
Both Carmen Argenziano and Tony Amendola continue to recur as Jacob and Bra’tac, respectively. JR Bourne and Colin Cunningham return from their one-shot turns as, respectively, Martouf/Lantash and Major Paul Davis, and both will continue to recur. (Davis in particular becomes a reliable character, a nice change from the clichéd hardasses like Maybourne and Samuels).
Chevron seven locked. This season solidified SG-1 as a show that valued its own continuity. While never heavily serialized, the show proves this season especially that it will continue to be aware of its own past and will build on what’s come before, even if it’s something small like Carter using Sokar’s method of attacking the SGC in “Serpent’s Song” to get through the buried gate in “A Hundred Days,” or encountering one of Machello’s many anti-Goa’uld weapons.
What’s best about this season is that they don’t rest on their laurels, instead committing to expanding the universe (showing us more of the Asgard, more of the Tok’ra, more of the Tollan, and more of the Goa’uld, as well as introducing the replicators), and also letting storylines finish. Having arrived in the third season, the show is willing to actually bring the two major storylines from “Children of the Gods” to a conclusion by ending the arcs for both Sha’re and Skaara being kidnapped by Apophis. Only one of those is a happy ending: Skaara being separated from Klorel and returned to Abydos in “Pretense.” Jackson loses his wife, but gains a new purpose, thus preventing him from leaving the show in “Forever and a Day,” which cleverly shows several possible outcomes of Sha’re’s death.
In addition, we remember that this is a modern military organization, and that means that people do get promoted. Carter is promoted to major in a lovely ceremony that’s interrupted by an Asgard transporter (not the last time the Asgard will snatch O’Neill away in mid-sentence), and later we see Fraiser with major’s clusters as well.
In general, this is an enjoyable season that moves things forward and keeps things entertaining.
Keith R.A. DeCandido is hard at work on Kali’s Wrath, an SG-1 novel taking place in the fifth season. His Carter-and-Teal’c story “Time Keeps on Slippin’”—which fills in the gap between seasons three and four—can be seen in the anthology Far Horizons.
Dr Frasier was promoted? I’ve never picked up that when I watched the show. Thanks for the information!
Great recap, Keith. This is it for me, until I rewatch the show; because the only two seasons I saw with a bit of regularity were seasons 1 and 2… and even 2 I think I never saw much of it, because until recently, I thought the Asgard first appeared around season 5.
I actually rather like the later Unas episodes with Shaka, but yeah, “Demons” was pretty bad. Unfortunately, this season also introduced the Replicators, which they seem to not be able to get enough of…but at least they were made a little more interesting with the introduction of the human form Replicators.
Although I like that we learn in “Fair Game” that O’Neill wears a clip-on. Another aspect of the treaty though, was that the Goa’uld were supposed to be able to set limits on Earth’s technological development. That seemed to be par for the course as part of the treaty, and not one of their special concessions, and the alteration to keep the Stargate at the end did not specify this part being given up. It doesn’t seem like anything ever came of that. It seems like the Goa’uld might take issue with the development of the 302s and the Prometheus, projects which in general seemed to have been planned before Anubis started really ignoring the treaty outright (the first time they tried to reverse engineer a death glider was in season 4). I wonder if they just didn’t see those things as threatening at that point. Although in season 6 Thor outright gives them Asgard weapons and shields for the Prometheus, which is kind of a big “Whoa” in terms of the treaty and sharing technology and such. But maybe by then Anubis was seen as a big enough threat that they didn’t care anymore.
And man…Zipacna. I watched that episode again yesterday, and even though I’m prepared for him, I still always laugh the second he comes on screen. I’m not sure why they also didn’t give him a fruity drink with a little umbrella in it.
Typo alert: It’s Zipacna, not Zipanca.
I think this was the season where the show really solidified and did some very strong work. There’s some terrific stuff here. Although there were one or two duds as well. I didn’t care for “Crystal Skull” much — partly because it’s hard to watch an “out of phase” episode without wondering why they don’t fall through the floor (something SG-1 will itself lampshade in “Wormhole X-Treme!” but will never actually justify). That’s the main thing I recall offhand, but I think there were other problems I had with it too.
For me, one of the biggest oversights in the SGC’s long-term project to reverse-engineer alien tech for Earthly use was that they didn’t figure out how to reproduce Intars and distribute them to the police or the public. They’re very effective, safe nonlethal weapons, and they already look like Earthly firearms, so they could easily enough have been passed off as an invention of Air Force scientists. And a consistently reliable reduced-lethality firearm could’ve saved a great many lives.
I also wish we’d seen the Needle Ships again. Those were cool. The Atlantis Puddle Jumpers were in the same vein, but the design wasn’t as interesting.
The needleships were cool, but impractical, like owning a zonda for every day use. The Puddlejumpers were basically VW buses for space travel, so not so cool but a lot more practical. Of course using a zonda for going to the store is something a Goa’uld would totally do.
I kinda like Crystal Skull, the out of phase thing is sorta justified in that aliens did it in order to comunicate better, so they probably used some super-duper alien tech to prevent floor plummeting sorta stuff. I wonder if those aliens were the Furlings we kept hearing so much about?
I have no idea what a “zonda” is.
@5 I remember that the Crystal Skull aliens=Furlings was a theory that floated around the boards, but kinda fizzled out since you’d think someone would have said something later on, especially as the team became more knowledgeable about the Ancients and that early time. (and then some of fandom became convinced that the Furlings actually ARE the giant koala bears from ‘200’ so then the argument always shifted about whether those were Furlings or not, and the Crystal Skull aliens dropped out of the discussion). My theory otherwise was that the Furlings were wiped out by the Goa’uld, and all the technology not specifically Ancient that the Goa’uld used, was probably Furling.
But anyway, regarding S3 – that was the season I really started to watch ( having to catch up in syndication , so there was a weird gap of about five eps in S2 that I had missed and didn’t see for years). And I agree that this is the season that they do a lot of smart things – close off some long running plots while still opening up the world, and continuing to build on what happened before. It’s too easy for shows to discover the Amazing Techdoodad and then it disappears, whereas at least SG-1 did things like incorporate the naquadah reactor into the ‘verse as the gamechanger it really should be. (over time, I think it probably should’ve leaked out as gamechanging tech for Planet Earth’s energy issues, but that’s part of my issues with some later season foot-dragging, not at this point in the show). and Maternal Instinct is one of my least favorites, and even more so in hindsight since I grew to dislike the whole Ascended business quite a lot.
Zipacna’s basket hat remains one of my favorite costuming touches. It was just so absurd, and yet weirdly perfect. If SG-1 came out today, it would be a meme.
Another good season of SG-1. Such a fun series. Might be time to pull out the DVDs for my own rewatch.
Bobby
Still wish for an episode by episode re-watch or at least a ‘hightlights reell like you guys did for x-files…but still good over views…
Love that you point out that they end their story arcs instead of letting them go on forever…I mean, even the Baal storyline eventually ended…
Dom DeLuise is a huge issue for me this season. He’s always a Mel Brooks character to me, no matter who’s writing or directing him at any given time. Really didn’t like his appearance here for that reason. Love him in Mel Brooks stuff…can’t even take him remotely seriously when I’m picturing this the whole time.
I do love me some Replicators, though. And Megan Leitch is always fun to watch.
Always look forward to these reviews, I’m currently rewatching myself but I’m a bit ahead (around S7). My theory is with my schedule these rewatches will catch up with me pretty fast. One of the great things about these recaps is they give you a better view of the season as a whole, in particular the larger story arcs, than perhaps when watched episode by episode over an extended period.
Your comment about the Unas made me jump for joy, sometimes it felt as if I was the only one who didnt get the fascination the writers had with the them. There was an interesting concept there but I felt it devolved into an overly simple ‘dont judge the ugly simple monster too harshly’ theme which I’ve seen done better elsewhere.
@3 I really liked the replicators when they were just a simple enemy rather than the complex humanoid forms we get later. They felt different from the standard bad-guy for me, more of an unstoppable force of nature than the sometimes over the top Goa’uld we see. Much like the Borg in Trek, I enjoy the concept that they simply cannot be reasoned with or ever really made peace with because their fundamental nature is antithetical to us. (Saying that, I loved the ep where we see the origin of that particular enemy – more to say on that later)
F.B
This is one of my favorite seasons of SG-1, but there are two things about it that I always hated:
1 – The Linea storyline. Linea could have been one of the greatest recurring villains of the series. Instead, they completely ruined her story and eliminated any possibility of that happening.
2 – This season sets up, but the series never fulfills, what could have been a fantastic follow up to the storyline involving Daniel’s grandfather. What ever became of him? What amazing things did he learn? They seriously dropped the ball by never revisiting this story.
Overall though, I still think this is one of the show’s stronger seasons.
Every time someone talks about “ascension” on this show, I twitch. The word says a lot more about how the Ancients perceive themselves than about any qualitative improvement. Evolution is not climbing a mountain to some pinnacle; it’s walking a path and making adjustments as you go. Some species take the wrong path and it dead-ends, and only time will tell which path you are on. To me, the Ancients are almost as bad as the Goa’uld, believing themselves superior because of technology and the false claim that being one form of life is inherently better than being another. Heh. End of rant about ascension.
On another note, I think it was this season where O’Neill really started playing up the “I’m dumb” persona. I know that Anderson did that on purpose, in part because he thought it would be funny, but I’d like to hear opinions on why, in character, O’Neill did that. The man was a full colonel in the U.S. Air Force and showed over and over that he’s not stupid. So why did he act that way?
@6 Christopher L Bennet: The Zonda is a super car (yes that is now a term) builtd by the small Italian manufacturer Pagani. It looks like this and goes really fast:
You can find Top Gear clips of Jeremy thrashing one around a track.
@6 Let me make that a link for you:
Sorry.
@13 I’d say that O’Neill downplaying his own intelligence has several reasons in-story. It is humorous to us, so it is probably a little humorous to the team, thus it is good for morale. Forcing somebody to say something technical in plain English is also a good way to get them to look at the problem differently. It can also be a ploy to get the enemy to underestimate him.
@13/Jas. Marshall – I like what @16/BrandonH suggested, but I’m also wondering if this was maybe meant to be a proxy for the audience. Not that we’re dumb, either – but we’re not experts in the field like O’Neill is. If he pretends to be dumb and gets that simpler explanation, then we will have the opportunity to understand it, too.
Don’t really have much to add – I agree with Zhane (12) in those two points and additionally would add that this show, while they did go forward as Keith states with honoring their own continuity and tying up some significant threads, they also create new loose threads but, especially with Linea and the Giant aliens, seriously dropping some pretty large balls. Generally, I remember this being an enjoyable season although I would probably be harsher about some episodes (I enjoyed “Maternal Instincts” and have a fondness for it even rewatching it recently, as I did in pieces via syndication) although I agree completely with the dishonorable mention list otherwise. Just a solid season with no real standouts, other than a variety of good ideas that kept giving gifts as the future years played out (e.g. replicators).
Oh, sorry (since I cannot edit my previous post) : I also meant to include my (still) wholehearted endorsement of TheSmokingGun’s (9) position.
@13: The goals of evolution are survival and reproduction. Of course, this only works by being well adapted to one’s environment, and a strategy that works really well in one environment will be a dead end in other; even intelligence is not worth it as an evolutionary trait if one’s brain requires more food than what is available. But considering Anubis’ plan will be to wipe out the galaxy so as to be able to start again from scratch, it seems that being a “being of pure energy” (now there’s a phrase that makes me twitch; express it as a “being of pure Lagrangian of a system’s configuration” and you realize just how nonsensical it is), it’s quite close of being the ultimate strategy to the problems of survival (and thus, the end of evolution). So in that sense, it could work.
Unfortunately, that’s not how the word evolution was used in the show, and when they start talking about unlocking one’s potential by using 90% of one’s brain, this is really getting hard to watch.
Ironically, a Hundred Days was one of my favorite SG1 epiosodes, if not one of my favorite sci-fi episodes of any series. How refreshing and rare to see an episode where a potentially life-altering event doesn’t magically sort itself out instantly. The fact that Shades of Grey played up on it as well puts it over the top for me. Back in the day, I was very used to the Star Trek magic reset button so to see a character stranded for months, and being plausibly changed by it, had a kind of emotional potency to it I’d never experienced before.
Sorry Keith but I didn’t find the romance sodden at all. I very much enjoyed the slow, deliberate pacing and how much O’Neill resisted giving in.
Honorable mention to Teal’c and his ridiculously insane willingness to strand himself underground to rescue his commander.
On a romantically related note, I agree with people that Linea was a wasted opportunity for future episodes but it’s so hard for me to watch that episode because of how painfully, cringetastically awkward it is to have Jackson given a love interest in the very next episode after his wife dies. His ridiculous “I’m still grieving” line is completely trite given all it takes is another kiss for him to succumb. Michael Shanks does his best with a simply awful writing decision but I still can’t stand watching that episode unless my wife wants to.
@19/FDS – If you register an account, you can edit your posts. Not obligatory – many people do it the way you did – but it’s an option. :)
I was very excited when Keith announced the Stargate rewatch. My expectations have been more than met- it’s great fun reading both Keith’s opinions and those of the commenters.
I find it additionally interesting because I’ve been reading many of the commenters opinions here on Tor re: WOT/ASOIAF/DS9 so it’s not “random” people (including CLB and, obviously, Keith himself).
I wish there were, say, two posts per season so that more detail could be looked at. As things stand, I also think that “Maternal Instinct” is a dud- very slow on a rewatch.
I find it that there is a category of episodes, in shows which I enjoy rewatching, that includes ones that are full of problems (eg. plot holes, lack of follow up…) but fun to watch anyway. The one with the giant aliens that we never see again is one of those for me.
Also, I wish there was less unas stuff in the show. Lack of follow up would’ve been welcome here, really uninteresting characters.
The recaps are catching up to my viewing too. (But they’re very fun to read.)
In SG1, romance in general is problematic. On one of the DVD featurettes, the showrunners complain that the Air Force wouldn’t let them write O’Neill having a romance with Carter, despite the characters’ obvious chemistry because of their ranks (so they would find ways to get them together with alternate realities.)
But throwing these two into other romances never quite sold because of that chemistry and the alternate reality teases. And yet they tried again and again and it was usually horrible – albeit sometimes in interesting ways.
(And like @21, I cringed when Daniel got romantically involved in the episode immediately after Sha’re’s death too.)
And this was the season I began to be happy when Maybourne appeared. And it was always great to see Kowalski back.
I hated Linea. There’s something about a scientist coming to another world and then, after 1 hour, being able to hack into their system better than any of the world hackers that put me off. She’s from another planet! How the heck does she know how to code in the computers inside SG-1? So yes, she’s a genius, some kind of nuclear physicist genius (and a war criminal as well). But still, that doesn’t explain how she can code her way into SG-1’s systems. And she didn’t even seem to have brought her own laptop/computer/tablet with her, so it seems she used SG-1’s own computers, with their English keyboards. Have you ever tried using a keyboard in a language you don’t understand (Russian, Bengali)? It’s kind of difficult!
TV/movies science: you’re a genius in one field, you can do everything in other fields. :)
lordmagnusen: Actually, the Stargate franchise was generally very good about understanding different scientific disciplines. I’ll be talking about that more in Friday’s rewatch, especially in relation to the episode “The Serpent’s Venom.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Oh, agreed. It’s a franchise with highly plausible science stuff. I was just replying to Ryamano’s concerns about Linea. Of course, something like that stands out even more in Stargate, since they’re usually better at that.
“200” was one of my favorites. I remember watching the cold open, thinking, “huh, I don’t remember that”. The furlings should never have been mentioned, as they were never developed – even just a mention of them being extinct would have sufficed.
And I always find it amusing that it takes the Air Force and NID only a couple of years to reverse engineer Goa’uld technology into functional weapons (F305, or prometheus) while IRL it can take over a decade to design and mass produce a new fighter plane.
I don’t remember much from this season, i probably skipped half of them, but I recall enjoying 100 days. Jack only falls for her out of loneliness, 4 months is a long time to be “stranded forever”.
@29/Jedman67: When they introduced the consortium of four races in “The Torment of Tantalus,” they planted seeds which could be picked up on later. Lots of shows do that, and some of the seeds develop while others fall by the wayside. You can’t say they “shoudn’t” have planted the seeds, because they don’t know in advance which ones will germinate and which ones won’t. For whatever reason, the producers never got around to developing the Furlings, and eventually it became kind of a self-referential joke to leave them mysterious.
@29: I’m just wondering how they manage to keep the massive SGC budget secret for years and years.
Developing a new fighter takes a decade, but how long would reverse-engineering one take?
“Urgo” did have the single funniest exchange in Stargate history.
Col. Hammond: SG-1, are they still…
Dr. Frasier: Sane?
@30: Good point. Still think “Furlings” is not the greatest name, but the cold open in “200” was fantastic.
@31: Easy, they hide the cost of the fighters in the F-15, F-22 and F-35 R&D programs. The costs of the Prometheus and Deadalus class ships can be hidden in the aircraft carrier budgets, plus you get lots of black projects, etc.
In all seriousness, IRL the budget would be too massive even with all that. It would require serious cooperation amongst all the appropriate committees in both houses and between all branches of the military. On the other hand, enough “small tech” is generally licensed to the public that can generate nice amounts of cash back to the SGP.
@32: Reverse engineering is only half the battle. For example, if Cuba manages to recover an intact F-35, and wants to build its own native fighter using it as a technological guide, it would likely take at least a decade or two – there is no technological infrastructure to understand the components, how they work, and to rebuild it using available resources. On the other hand, if Russia or China gets the plane, they could reengineer it in a fraction of the time – they have the technology and infrastructure to manufacture it, albeit not nearly as good as current US or Israeli military tech.
It’s a matter of being able to understand the components and how they go together – software as well as hardware. Gao’uld technology is so far advanced than Tauri tech that without a legup somewhere, we don’t even have the tools to understand it – not that a tv show can’t just handwave that.
@26: there’s an episode in ‘Enterprise’ where Tucker goes to Vulcan for T’Pols wedding. The refrigerator is broken, so he says something like “If I can keep a warp engine running at Warp 5, fixing a broken fridge is no sweat (y”all).”
It’s entirely plausible that he tinkers with refrigators in his spare time, but the comparison just makes no sense.
@34/Jedman67: I could swear that the name was originally spelled “Ferlings,” but once RDA and/or the writers started making jokes about how it sounded like some kind of little furry guys, the spelling got retconned. But I can’t find any online proof of that now. As it happens, “ferling” is a Middle English word for one-fourth of something, and they were first mentioned as one of the Alliance of Four Races.
Yeah, I understand the Cuba/USA, USA/Goa’uld tech comparison. And as for the warp engine/refrigerator thing, reminds me of an X-Men comic where Iceman needs help tying a bowtie, and he goes to Forge, whose power is to invent and repair all kinds of tech… and Forge doesn’t know how to tie a bowtie. He can repair alien tech, design amazing stuff from scratch… but not do a tie.
@37: Is that from the wedding of Scott and Jean issue? If I remember, no one seems to know how to tie it (Beast, anybody) and then Prof. X comes in and just schools them all.
@29 It takes a decade in peacetime. That includes our phony war on terror, because there is no real need to develop a technological edge in that. In war time, well that is when the rules on procurement get torn up and shoved in a deep dark hole. Just look at WW2, the UK went into that with it’s fleet air arm still using biplanes and came out within touching distance of jets. Germany went in with propellor driven fighters and came out with ballistic missiles. America went in with canvas and wood construction bombers and came out with B29 Superfortresses. You’d be amazed what you can achieve when the rules on soliciting submissions are junked and the government simply hands out the specs and says “build it”.
They are hardly starting from scratch either though. The Stargate itself has been in their possession for years, and that was researched the hell out of, and we know Goa’uld designs are pretty much ripped off from Ancient tech so understanding the ‘Gate even a little gave them a fairly solid starting point on all things Goa’uld. And no matter what Kinsey said, even retrieving little things with no direct weapons application would aid in understanding Goa’uld tech and step-by-step mount up quite quickly. Not to mention all the other technological garbage SG1 (and presumbaly other SG teams) encountered, filed a report on, and then had in-depth teams go back and rip them off.
I’ve like all the reviews so far – but this time, I disagree on so much. I love most everything about this season. I liked that they finally put the movie behind them by closing up the threads. And the seeds for so many future plot lines.
Most of all, this season was about giving the characters real depth. Not just the main characters but many recurring ones as well.
The Linea episode had a lot of issues – but there had to be an episode where we see Daniel move on. His saying that he just lost his wife a few months ago, then self-correcting himself to say that that wasn’t true, he’d actually lost her a long time ago – is a huge moment of insight for that character and for the audience. It also justifies that episode airing when it did. Just as Cold Lazarus moved O’Neil forward. This episode moved Daniel forward.
This season is just littered with so many tiny important details that I feel moved SG-1 from just being a fun little sci-fi show to a level that I don’t think any show has ever gotten close to.
So many details, so many layers – it’s what makes the show so re-watchable. The acting of the main characters, the background actors, the sets, the science, the story arcs – each time you rewatch there’s something new that you didn’t catch before. And this is the season that solidifies the shows legacy.
IMHO of course. :)
@38 – Crzydroid: No, it’s from a random Iceman has to wear a tux issue, a few years before that wedding.