Secrets

Aptly titled, there are a whole bunch of secrets in this episode. Sam keeping the secret of the work she's doing from her father, the secret harcesis child of Apophis and Amonet's host, Sha're, then Kasuf hiding the child from the goa'uld, Amonet not revealing SG-1 to Apophis and his guards, and last but not least, the reporter who has discovered the secret of the Stargate program.

Two concurrent stories are shown; Sam and Jack going to Washington, D.C. to receive medals from the President, and Daniel returning to Abydos as he promised them a year ago, along with Teal'c. Sam's father, Jacob, is also present at the medal ceremony, and is trying to meddle with her career and get her into NASA, so she can follow her dream and go to space. Sam, obviously, doesn't want to go in a tiny shuttle all the way out to orbit when she routinely goes lightyears away to other planets around the galaxy. Meanwhile a reporter approaches Jack looking for details about the Stargate program, about which he already knows a lot, meaning there's a leak somewhere. On Abydos, Daniel and Teal'c find Daniel's wife Sha're, who is not under the influence of the goa'uld Amonet due to being heavily pregnant, and the goa'uld not wishing to risk the life of the child, whom Apophis wishes to be his future host.

Sam does a pretty awful job of keeping her cover story intact to her dad, who knows it's a cover story, but doesn't pry too much. He's baffled by Sam's insistence not to take the opportunity he's created for her to join NASA, though, and of course she can't tell him the real reason. Conversely, Jack keeps an air of aloofness (not hard for him, I know...) when confronted by the reporter, and even manages to think up a quick explanation for being caught talking about navigating the galaxy. Unfortunately, the reporter is run down by a car before he can report on his findings, which leaves Jack very suspicious.

It's never made clear if this is actually an accident or whether the DoD arranged his death to avoid the story breaking. Regardless, Jack thinks it was no accident, and when told by general Hammond that "it wasn't us", his eyes betray his feelings. It's brilliant acting by Richard Dean Anderson, and shows disappointment in his superiors and 'the system', and sadness that it had to come to this. Carter says her goodbyes to her dad, who tells her quite bluntly that he has terminal cancer.

Afterwards, Jack and Carter head to Abydos to find Heru'ur there, who came to steal the baby, but he escapes (baby-less) and not a second later, Apophis turns up to take Amonet. She tells him that Heru'ur has the baby, which is what Teal'c tried to lead her to believe, but she looks right at SG-1 before leaving, so she knows that's not the case. She keeps her mouth shut, though. Is she, too concerned about the baby's fate? Is she plotting against Apophis (Knowing the goa'uld mindset, this isn't hard to believe)? Or is Sha're exerting some control over her, the way Skaara managed to overpower Klorel for a few seconds in The Serpent's Lair?

This question goes unanswered, as does my own wondering why Daniel didn't carry Sha're off to Cimmeria to go through the new Thor's Hammer device? Maybe he feared for the child's safety through the ordeal, and wanted to take her after the birth, but ran out of time.

The episode did a good job of moving the main story forwards, and features some of the best acting from Richard Dean Anderson, which is the highlight for me. It also introduces Jacob Carter, who'll become an important, and likeable, recurring character.

Thor's Chariot

This is a follow-up episode to season 1's Thor's Hammer, where SG-1 destroyed an Asgard device that protected the planet Cimmeria from the goa'uld. Of course, now the goa'uld (a son of Ra and Hathor, called Heru'ur, or Horus the Elder) have invaded the vulnerable planet and are killing and enslaving the population, who believe Thor has forsaken them.

Whil Jack and Teal'c do some recon and fighting, Daniel and Sam follow Gerwyn (the woman who greeted them the first time they visited, and called them for help this time) to see the 'Hall of Thor's Might', in the hope of finding a weapon to fight the goa'uld. They are tested by a hologram of Thor (like the one from Thor's Hammer and solve a riddle showing mathematical prowess, which gives them a direct link to the real Thor, a Roswell-type alien. He has no weapons for them, but returns them to the planet's surface and minutes later sends an Asgard mothership to remove the goa'uld presence from Cimmeria and replaces the Hammer.

This is the first time we really see the extent of the Asgard's power, and the first glimpse of what they're really like. They seem friendly, if a little aloof, but willing to help the fight against the goa'uld - in fact, they've apparently been at war for some time now. They've also been visiting Earth, which is probably what led to the myths of 'Greys', as the similarity is uncanny.

On being returned to the planet's surface, Gerwyn tells the team that the Asgard are going to leave someone with them to help them develop and answer any questions they might have, and that the Hammer will always make an exception for Teal'c. This seems like a blatant invitation for the tau'ri to return and talk to the Asgard, but they apparently never do.

Another thing that annoys me about this episode is that the humans on Cimmeria are at the level northern Europe was at about 1,000 years ago, and this matches with the Norse mythology they believe in, but Thor's test for seeing how advanced they are is seeing if they understand the relation of pi to circles. The value given is '3 14 15 9', and pi was approximated to this level (3.14159) long before the middle ages. Also, pi has no relation to the radius of a circle, which is what Daniel demonstrates. It is actually the relation of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

One more thing we learn in this episode is that Sam, like Cimmerian ex-host Kendra, has retained Jolinar's ability to use goa'uld technology. She sends a blast out from the hand device, but can't get the healing device to work. This is yet another reminder, as in the previous two episodes, that her blending with Jolinar had more effect than anyone realised.

Cor-ai

Now this is the kind of stuff I like to see. Teal'c, while he is a 'good guy' now, is still technically a hardened war criminal, having committed many atrocities in the name of his former master Apophis. In this episode he is held accountable for one of these war crimes by the son of a victim, and put into 'cor-ai', which is their form of trial - the sentence being death.

Initially, Jack, Sam and Daniel try to argue Teal'c's case by finding out why he did it (to try and save as many of the other villagers as possible), but then - and this is something that still doesn't sit right with me - Jack decides to go back to Earth to bring reinforcements back to forcibly break Teal'c out. Teal'c objects to this, as do Sam and Daniel at first, but then those two change their minds and want to break Teal'c out too. Fortunately, general Hammond has his head still firmly screwed on and refuses to go through with this. It really bugs me that Jack would go to this length to free Teal'c - even after Teal'c has told him that he won't go in this manner. I certainly wouldn't like to see Teal'c die, but I definitely don't want to see the villagers' lives, and those of the SGC reinforcements, put at risk in order to free him from what is after all a legitimate justice system.

In a couple of O'Neill's scenes we see references to things he may have been ordered to do by the US government. This has never really been touched on before, but it paves the way for future episodes that will confirm he was involved in what are known as 'black ops' - highly clandestine military operations which may go against the military's code of conduct or even against laws. He mentions to general Hammond that he has been ordered to do some "damn distasteful things" in his years of service, and his eagerness to break Teal'c out suggests that maybe Jack's not ready to face the consequences of what he's done, or is still in conflict with his conscience. It's something that gets a little more development in the future, but not much that I can recall.

You just know he loved shouting OBJECTION! during the cor-ai though!

Hathor

This is a pretty old sci-fi standard - a femme fatale is seducing men left, right and centre, and has to be stopped. In this case, said femme is Hathor, ancient Egyptian fertility godess and, of course, goa'uld. However, the writers do manage to switch things up from the standard by making this quite a female-empowering episode. Sam and Janet [Fraisier], along with some other women on the base, manage to get their own way and eventually overcome Hathor's power. They do enlist the help of the de-brainwashed O'Neill, but he's the star of the show so it's forgivable, and besides, Sam and Janet still do most of the cool stuff.

While it's quite funny to see some of the men on base so infatuated with Hathor (in particular, general Hammond), there are some more serious moments such as her trying to turn Jack into a jaffa, and taking advantage of the drugged Daniel to 'acquire' some human DNA (surely she could have just done a cheek-swab?) to make some human-compatible symbiotes - she is, as it turns out, a goa'uld queen, and the first one seen or spoken of. Also in this episode we see a goa'uld healing sarcophagus, like the one that brought Daniel and Sha'uri back from the dead in the movie. Obviously, this is a hugely powerful device and as such it had to be destroyed before the end of the episode, which is a shame, but sarcophagi do crop up every now and again in future episodes (presumably because the set piece cost a lot to build!). Hathor, too, will return - at the end of the episode she's seen escaping through the stargate to Chulak, though it's not really clear how friendly she ever was with Apophis. They both disliked Ra, though, and they now both hate Earth, so maybe they'll bond over that.

Thor's Hammer

This is the first time the Asgard are mentioned in the show, as Daniel has been researching gods throughout history and discovered polar opposites to the goa'uld - helping humans using 'magic', which of course refers to advanced technology (see Arthur C. Clarke's famous quote). Teal'c offers a gate address taught to all jaffa to stop any goa'uld traveling there, and the team go to explore the planet Cimmeria (alas, Conan doesn't seem to live there). Upon arrival the team are scanned by a large hammer-shaped device and Teal'c, after appearing to climax, is transported somewhere with O'Neill who tries to save him. The two meet an Unas (who, as a species, also get their first mention) while Daniel and Sam meet a former goa'uld host, Kendra.

Hardly anything is revealed about the Asgard or Unas - only that the former are a spacefaring race of aliens who oppose the goa'uld and have similarly advanced technology, and the latter are another species of very robust aliens that the goa'uld sometimes infected in the past. I think it's actually left a little ambiguous whether they were a species or just one being - this goa'uld refers to itself as "Unas, the first one". Sadly after the symbiote is killed by Thor's Hammer, the host's body is too injured by the Earth weapons to survive, so we can't find out anything else for the time being. The only glimpse we get of the Asgard is a hologram (played by Mark Gibbon, who also appears as a jaffa in much later seasons) and some of their technology. I'm not sure why the name 'Asgard' was chosen over 'AEsir' (in Norse mythology, Asgard refers to the home of the AEsir gods) but these aliens inspired the Norse gods of ancient and medieval Europe.

The biggest plot point of this episode is that everything, not just something, of a goa'uld host survives, as evidenced by Kendra. This gives hope for Sha're and Skaara, who were taken as hosts in Children of the Gods. Unfortunately, to save his friend Teal'c, Daniel has to destroy Thor's Hammer, but as he points out, "at least we know it can be done." I actually think he makes this choice far too fast, especially as he and Teal'c haven't really been shown bonding yet, but it was important that they had him do it rather than resent another team member for doing it.

The audience don't know it yet, but there is a link between the aliens from a few episodes ago, the Nox, and the Asgard, which will be shown in the next episode, The Torment of Tantalus.

The Nox

This is a planet-of-the-week episode, but contains elements that will later become part of the larger stargate mythos. We see the Nox for the first time, a race of beings with superior technology to the goa'uld, but who are a peaceful, enigmatic people. They are able to hide themselves and other things, to the point that even the goa'uld, who have been coming to the planet for over 400 years, do not know of their existence. They also have amazing healing powers, and can bring people back from death. The team go to their planet in search of a flying creature with the power of invisibility and run into their old pal Apophis and his small personal guard. It's the first time the show's primary antagonists have shown up since The enemy Within and despite seeming quite weak (only 3 jaffa following Apophis) they still manage to kill the human members of SG-1, who are then reanimated by the Nox.

In my mind, the Nox are one of the most cryptic groups of aliens to feature in the stargate world, as we never find much out about them other than that they're incredibly advanced compared to us. It's nice to see an advanced race of pacifists, too - often in science fiction, advanced races are shown either as aggressive towards us or as benefactors. The Nox, on the other hand, just want to be left alone.

Not much else happens in the episode - the dangers of 'meddling' with other cultures and the naïveté of children are shown - the Nox had gone undetected for hundreds of years before SG-1 visited their planet and started a fight (yes, Han Teal'c shot first) and then because of a talk with Jack, the young nox Nafrayu confronts Apophis and is injured or killed (but returned to life by his fellows). At the end of the episode Jack repeats what the old nox told him - "The very young do not always do as they are told," referring to both Nafrayu and the human race.

The Enemy Within

The main themes presented in the second episode of SG-1 are Teal'c's acceptance by the SGC and his appointment to SG-1, and the knowledge gained about the goa'uld themselves. These are presented as two side-by-side stories which resolve together at the climax of the episode. In one story Teal'c is being held prisoner by the USAF for questioning and study, with O'Neill being the only one who trusts him completely. During interrogation he reveals the knowledge that the goa'uld control hundreds if not thousands of worlds in the galaxy by posing as gods to humans and jaffa. It is also revealed that Earth is the legendary Tau'ri, the homeworld of the human form from where the original people were taken by the goa'uld and used as hosts, modified into the jaffa, and kept as slaves.

The second story follows Major Kawalsky as the characters realise he has been infected with a goa'uld symbiote. The symbiote at various points takes control of Kawalsky, killing one man and hurting several other people. The doctors on base attempt to cut it out of him but ultimately fail, and the episode culminates in a battle between Kawalsky, who is trying to return to Chulak through the stargate and destroy the SGC in his wake, and Teal'c, who affirms to General Hammond that he has truly forsaken his former masters by killing the goa'uld (and , sadly, Major Kawalsky in the process).

It's a shame to see Maj. Kawalsky killed off so early in the show as he was a strong character, and a carryover from the film. He does return for one or two cameos in future episodes but as far as the main storyline is concerned, he's dead for good. His death, though, brings around something good - Teal'c as a member of SG-1. The final shot of the episode confirms this as we see the team march, in matching fatigues, up the ramp and through the stargate on the first of their many missions.

A smaller story which is easy to miss is that of General Hammond becoming less of a hardass than in Children of the Gods - he still retains the quality in his first scene of the episode, but throughout the course of the show he sees how badly other members of the US Government are willing to treat Teal'c who is still (almost) a human being and decides to be more trusting of O'Neill's judgement of the man, as well as letting his actions speak for themselves. It's important that the General is seen to be 'one of the good guys', as he is after all Jack's boss and will be giving many of the orders throughout the show.

Tomorrow's episode, Emancipation, is a rather weak one, but is the first planet-of-the-week style episode, a format that I really enjoyed through the early seasons of SG-1.

P. S. Did you notice the scenes in this episode where Teal'c's forehead emblem was upside-down? In these early days, it was applied in three parts rather than one, and the makeup crew were still getting to grips with spending an hour applying it to him every morning.

Children of the Gods (Parts 1 & 2)

Note: There is also a re-cut straight-to-DVD 'feature' version of this double episode but, to be consistent, I watched the original version, as included in my DVD box set.

In 1997, Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner created Stargate: SG-1, a TV spinoff of the 1994 film. Richard Dean Anderson (of MacGyver fame) was cast in the lead role as Colonel Jack O'Neill of the U.S. Air Force (played by Kurt Russell in the movie), and Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge and Amanda tapping were cast in supporting roles as the team SG-1. This would be the start of a 14-year television franchise, ending with 354 episodes and even some TV movies.

In this hour-and-a-half we are introduced to the central ideas of the show - that the stargate can travel to places other than Abydos, that Ra's race (the Goa'uld) are still a scourge on the galaxy, and that Earth is starting its own stargate programme, run in secret by the U.S. Air Force. After a small-scale goa'uld attack through the stargate, Col. O'Neill is called in by Major General Hammond (veteran actor and renaissance man Don S. Davis) to discuss his mission through the stargate and the new threat. This culminates in two more missions through the gate: to bring Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks, previously James Spader) back from Abydos; then, after another attack on Abydos, to the planet Chulak to rescue Skaara and Sha're (both Abydonian characters from the film).

Looking back, it's obvious that the show was still finding its feet and trying to make a name for itself at this stage. It is the only episode to feature nudity (full-frontal nudity, at that) and is very much military science fiction, lacking the humour and joviality it would gain later. Some elements of the show's mythology are also in contrast to later episodes, such as the Greco-Roman style of Chulak, the goa'uld ship that seems to be a cross between a tel'tak and death glider, and the sheer power of the jaffa - this episode sees bullets bouncing off their armour and staff weapons blasting holes through solid stone walls!

The characters are introduced/reintroduced quite well for the most part - O'Neill is first seen stargazing from his roof, perhaps searching for Abydos, and throughout the episode shows a lot of loyalty to those he likes and trusts. Michael Shanks essentially does his best impersonation of James Spader for the role, and is given his motivation by the kidnap and enslavement of his wife. Samantha Carter is given perhaps one of the worst lines ever to appear on television, but develops from the defensive, cold person she's initially presented as into a trustworthy member of the team, also showcasing her scientific curiosity and wonder. Teal'c is shown as a reluctant servant to the enemy who sees his opportunity to turn against them and grabs it, earning O'Neill's trust instantly. Also showcased is General Hammond, who starts off as a by-the-book tough general but is shown to soften up and truly care about those under his command. We even get to see Walter "Chevron seven locked" Harriman, here known only as one of several gate technicians.

The episode does a good job of setting up the workings for the show by inventing the idea that there is a huge stargate network, by setting up an entire species of villains with one prominent bad guy, and by providing the beginnings of both long- and short-term story arcs (the kidnapping and implantation of Sha're and Skaara and the implantation of Kawalsky, respectively). Because of this it gained ten seasons, two spin-off series (three if you count the short-lived awful cartoon Stargate Infinity), some straight-to-DVD movies and an enormous international fanbase, which itself led to this re-watch and this blog. Stay tuned for tomorrow's entry, on The Enemy Within!

Stargate

1994 was the year that started the Stargate franchise with Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's film Stargate. It's in this film that, despite a few minor plot holes and differences to the series (which have surely been discussed to death elsewhere), we see the genesis of a fully-formed, fleshed-out universe for the story to take place in. Many aspects of this universe will later be reused as central tenets of the TV show, such as Goa'uld posession of humans, their impersonation of (or perhaps inspiration for) the gods of antiquity, and most importantly the use of a Stargate to create a wormhole to travel vast distances through space. We are also introduced to characters, settings, and technology that will become familiar (or at least recurring) in later years.

Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader) is presented as a crackpot Egyptologist with unorthodox theories about the builders of the Great Pyramids. Much of his behaviour in the movie would continue into the series (where he's portrayed by Michael Shanks), most obviously at the outset before Shanks began to take more control of the character.
Conversely, the Colonel O'Neil of the film (Kurt Russell) is a stoic, humourless opposite to the wry, joking O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) we would come to love in the series. Despite this, we do see the beginnings of his emotional healing - after losing his son to a gun accident before the events of the film, he begins to see Skaara as a kind of son, most notably when Skaara picks up O'Neil's gun, sending O'Neil into a protective rage - he doesn't want to see anybody else hurt themselves because of him (at least in his eyes, his son's death was his own fault). This theme is continued into the series, notably in the pilot episode, Children of the Gods, where, upon arriving on Abydos, O'Neill walks right past Daniel to embrace Skaara.

The film also offers the first glimpses of Anubis and Horus guards, staff weapons, death gliders, ring transporters, glowing goa'uld eyes, the Cheyenne Mountain complex housing the Stargate Program (called the Creek Mountain complex in the film), the MALP, and even the star map that's in the background of many SGC scenes in the TV show. At the time they all just seemed like cool elements padding out the stargate world, but they were integrated almost seamlessly into the series, elements such as the staff weapon being used every week by ex-enemy combatant Teal'c.

Nobody save the film's writers can say how the original 2 sequels planned would have been, but in my opinion Stargate is a great film that laid the foundations for an even greater TV series. Check back tomorrow when I'll have watched the Stargate: SG-1 series pilot, Children of the Gods!