Why do they think the audience is going to cheer for a cheating man getting back together with his ex-wife?
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@amberrav Because the audience is also human.
What a stupid episode. All the astronauts on the moon are just leisurely watching the sunrise? What the hell is this? A field trip? Meanwhile the Dutch guy gets stuck under his rover getting burned to a crisp and Molly decides to doom herself as well to go out and save him. A ton of new astronauts join the show and there's absolutely no insight into who they are and what are their backstory. They just tried to move the show forward too fast, there's a huge gap from the first season and it's feeling way rushed. Hope this improves over the next few episodes because season 1 was a true gem.
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@ergydion Nonsense. They were at no risk, and astronauts are allowed downtime to explore and experience wonder too. Why not? There was one astronaut left alone in the station for months last season.
This is fine if a little by-the-numbers. It's a standard alien virus sci-fi story in which the main cast need to go into lockdown and have to find the cure before time runs out. But the Atlantis characters do help it along and keep it interesting. The most interesting part is the tension between Weir and Sheppard and I love that they sit down at the end to talk it out - the different dynamic here thanks to the mix of civilian and military personnel do give this show its own flavour.
There's some odd stuff too. Ford is strangely on edge even before he finds out he's infected, and his freak out moment certainly makes sense but feels a bit out of character for him specifically. Similarly, McKay seems to be overdoing it but I guess he can be forgiven in this circumstance.
It also falls back on the standard sci-fi trope of an EMP to fix things, which seemed the obvious route as soon as they figure out that machines are part of the problem.
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@lefthandedguitarist Don't forget that at least Sheppard's radio should have stopped working after the first EMP attempt, and all the active radios in the city should have been killed by the second, bigger EMP. (But I guess the puddle jumpers have their own Ancient comms tech… plot armor edition.)
Shout by David Wilder
VIP11Seriously?! They tease those red lights in the last episode and all we get is a brief mention of them on this episode?!
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@itswilder Cylons do not reveal themselves easily.
What the heck were those lights?!
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@itswilder These lights were obviously Cylons. xD
A cool concept and the episode allows us to understand more about the Wraith without reducing how intimidating they are. That can often be a difficult thing to achieve. I like the twists and turns this one goes through on its journey, and I like that this gives Dr. Beckett more to do for the first time. The guest character played by Allison Hossack felt a bit too similar to the one she played previously over on SG-1, but she does a good job here.
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The guest character played by Allison Hossack felt a bit too similar to the one she played previously over on SG-1
@lefthandedguitarist It did feel like I'd seen Perna before. I had, under a different name: Zenna. :grin:
Oh the wokeness ... SJW's must love it
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@eon4dk Can't you handle stepping outside your safe space?
Oh the wokeness ... SJW's must love it
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@eon4dk I do, this is a great show!
And suddenly this show is about girls getting it done, huh? That’s one way to screw up an interesting premise.
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@eiduren Hurr durr women bad
Better than the first part, things just flow better here. The character of Rain begins to work and there's good interaction between the Doc and Starling, as well as Paris and Tuvok. In fact, it might pretty much be the Doctor who saves this whole story. The addition of a portable holographic emitter for him is going to allow his character to grow, and I like the fact that it referred to his memory loss in the 'The Swarm' (which, chronologically, should come right before this episode) and explained that he's recovering and gives us a possible reason as to why he was barely in part 1.
Ed Begley Jr. does do a great job as the bad guy, despite how low budget his entire business appears (he just has the one henchman working for him).
The whole sequence with Torres and Chakotay getting captured by gun-toting American survival fanatics was painful and moronic. And no explanation as to why bullets passed through the Doc.
If the 29th century has "time police" to sort out people they detect aren't in their correct time, why have they never shown up before whenever Star Trek characters accidentally travel to the past?
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If the 29th century has "time police" to sort out people they detect aren't in their correct time, why have they never shown up before whenever Star Trek characters accidentally travel to the past?
Because they didn't need to. Space and time are very big. Not all temporal events are going to actually have noticeable/measurable repercussions and some sort themselves out on their own. Voyager being in the 20th century and very far from where they were supposed to be would have a massive impact on the timeline.
Shout by LeftHandedGuitarist
The lack of female Jaffa warriors is certainly something the show has needed to address, but it's a shame that this is the way it was done. Not a bad episode by any means, but it's very forgettable even with Jolene Blalock guest starring. I absolutely want to see more Jaffa women kicking people's asses. Blalock is the best part of this but Christopher Judge doesn't have that much chemistry with her and the romance subplot is really misplaced within the context of the story.
The other good part of it is Daniel's friendship that forms with the young girl, Nesa. I wish the episode had allowed more time for this to be explored, along with helping to make us to better understand the aggressive views of her older sister. This feels like an episode with too many elements crammed in, so the important ones in there don't get a proper chance to breathe.
It's actually quite surprising how few female writers worked on SG-1 over the years.
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@lefthandedguitarist I can't take that romance thread seriously, not considering who wrote the script. Teal'c would surely be above such nonsense, but I guess Christopher Judge wasn't. :joy::frowning:
It's wonderful to see Jonas return, even if I find all the politics of his planet to be super uninteresting - but here they made it work. The bickering between the various ministers is done well, but it's the reactions of Jack, Daniel and Teal'c that make it fun to watch.
The rest of the episode with the drill feels like a disaster movie we've all seen before, just with a much lower budget. They pull it off, though. I enjoy Carter getting all scientific and excited, and Kianna is a strong guest character. And it's nice to see a Goa'uld who is more rounded and not a complete jerk.
The big unsolved mystery is why do Jonas and Kianna have matching haircuts?
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The big unsolved mystery is why do Jonas and Kianna have matching haircuts?
@lefthandedguitarist Assuming the IMDB trivia is sourced properly… it was a big fat coincidence!
It was coincidental that Corin Nemec and Emily Holmes had similar hairstyles at the time of filming. Joseph Mallozzi was worried that it might appear their characters were related, making the romantic scenes "a little weird".
— https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0709089/trivia?item=tr4695393
A great fun episode, and Omega continues to be endearing with her endless optimism. Also delighted to see Rafa and Trace back and maybe now people will finally start to see how great they are!
Interesting ending moment, my first thought was Ahsoka but I guess that wouldn't make that much sense... would it?
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@lefthandedguitarist I wouldn't say "no" to it being Ahsoka. I would love seeing her (and Ashley's voice) back. But I agree it wouldn't make sense because that would imply she works with the rebellion and than I would ask why we never heard of her ? Yes, because she wasn't invented back then but you know what I mean.
Also, at the end of Rebels she went looking for Ezra and Thrawn. She's still looking for Thrawn in The Mandalorian. Can't think of a good reason why she should be with the rebellion now.
Review by LeftHandedGuitarist
A strong and effective send off for Daniel that does hit the right emotional spots. It's handled with care. Of course, even back in 2002 it was widely reported that Michael Shanks was going to be leaving the show, so there wasn't a surprise factor here. But that didn't diminish how sad it was to watch.
While the episode does remove his character, it has the foresight to not "kill" him off as such, leaving the possibility open for appearances in the future. But even so, this manages to feel final. The farewell between him and Jack is played very nicely, and it was the right choice that Daniel selects him to say goodbye to. Their friendship has been rough along the way (even as recently as a couple of episodes ago with the ending of 'Meridian'), but it's really grown into one of the most solid relationships here. The tears in Michael Shanks eyes feel genuine which is a testament to his acting abilities.
Whether you agree with Daniel's reasons for leaving is another matter. He seems to almost be giving up, despite his protestations that he's not. He claims to feel useless and that he's done all he can; I'm not sure I quite feel the same. The episode attempts to justify his state of mind, but the fact that it's not been built up kind of makes it not ring entirely true for me. He and SG-1 have accomplished a LOT over the past few years.
Other than that, this introduces us to the naquadria element and also Jonas Quinn. I like Jonas and I think this episode helps to establish his morals quite well.
I remember a lot of online discussion back in the day about Carter's goodbye scene with Daniel where she's talking about "why do we always wait to tell people how we really feel?". This was misinterpreted by a lot of people, myself included, as her declaring some romantic feelings towards him. I think it's an easy mistake to make given the words she chooses, but it's definitely not meant that way.
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(even as recently as a couple of episodes ago with the ending of 'Meridian')
I believe you meant "Menace"? This episode is "Meridian" :grin:
Love the idea behind this episode, but the final product has never really worked for me. It often feels like it's trying too hard and most of the humour never quite hits the mark. There are some great in-jokes sprinkled in there, though. I get the feeling that the cast and crew had a lot of fun making this and it was mainly done for their own amusement.
Most problematic is that Martin and his alien friends are just boring subjects for a story. Their whole schtick is repetitive, both in this episode and when combined with their previous one, and they are so bland. Martin himself at least has an okay comic-relief factor, but while I do sympathise with him I also find him difficult to really like.
The best thing in it is the Wormhole X-Treme parody itself, with the fourth-wall breaking end sequence finally landing the humour that the episode was going for.
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@lefthandedguitarist I unfortunately saw the top half of your rating before starting the episode, as kind of a spoiler-ish thing like "oh, this one's not going to be very good", and by halfway through I was wondering what the heck you had been smoking because it's absolutely hilarious… and then the last third, especially, killed it. I understood. :sweat_smile:
Ugh, such a difficult one to rate. It's all over the place, with perfect 10 moments and head-scratching 1 moments flipping back and forth until, sadly, the actual story drags it down. :frowning:
Shout by Antoine Kemperman
VIP4Brilliant twist. Awesome graphics, almost real. Strong story.
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@antoinek What Twist? Did I miss something?
Naomi's plot is kind of uninteresting compared to the others...
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@cirdec94 That's a polite understatement. It really highlights the persistently weakest elements of the show. I know they will pass, historically, but they should really be ironing this into steady quality by now. Otherwise they will lose chunks of the metrics they need to continue expanding budget and production value, which spoiler we REALLY want for an expansive sci-fi experience, pun intended. Shout out to Thomas Jane for directing this episode and broadening his talents.
Absolutely superb, and a fantastic follow up the equally great 'Touchstone' from season 2. This episode takes you on a ride and manages to make you question whether your really knew O'Neill at all. I loved it when Stargate went full intrigue because the characters were set up well enough to take it to all sorts of unexpected places.
And again, this uses the shows history to build a new story from existing parts, which is so cool. We go right back to Tollana from a few episodes back and use their "no technology" stance to take us down a completely different path. Maybourne and his secrets that were laid in 'Touchstone' begin to be revealed and Jack is even able to use the events of '100 Days' as a reason to help him with his plans.
It manages to keep O'Neill's intentions pretty well hidden, even going as far as to potentially hurt his friendship with Daniel in quite a harsh scene. One thing that always stuck out to me was that in his conversation with Carter about "now I'm acting like myself", his performance really brought me back to the original Kurt Russell version from the movie. Nice.
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@lefthandedguitarist Was it just me who thought the ruse was supremely obvious? Not the exact target, per se, but the fact that Jack was playing a role?
Just a couple of episodes ago, they were still using floppy disks to transfer secure data. I'm glad to see that they have suddenly transitioned to memory sticks, but they seem to have just skipped right over CDs!
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@lefthandedguitarist To be fair, that disk was from Season 4. Hammond had just been keeping it in the drawer for four years.
The way this episode brings together a bunch of characters from different previous episodes feels so rewarding. That's the thing that used to always make Stargate stand out so much for me compared to much of the Star Trek shows, the sense of continuity and consequences. It's great to see Ska'ara again (I wish the show had used him more) and the return of the Nox with Lya. Plus, we get to see the cool new Tollan homeworld which looks suspiciously like a university campus! It works, though.
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@lefthandedguitarist In terms of continuity, DS9 was the Star Trek we deserved. Nearly the entire canon aside from that one series, though… Yes, unfortunately there are a lot of Reset Buttons in Trek.
Well, I guess they can't all be great. This was like an X-Files episode with a sprinkling of Silence of the Lambs. Those are both great things but they took away from what makes Stargate what it is. In this case we get an uninteresting story in a visually drab location and a guest star who completely inhabits the "creepy uncle" vibe. It also doesn't utilise our main characters in ways that feel natural to them.
For the positives, the actress for Anna does a good job and I always enjoy seeing Doctor Lee.
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@lefthandedguitarist I think it suffers from its position in the season. Whatever came after the absolute beauty of Heroes was always going to look less than in comparison. I'm mildly thankful it was a story as irrelevant as this compared to something actually important in the scheme of things.
I always thought that this was such a cool sci-fi concept, and it struck me as being quite original. I wouldn't be at all surprised if something similar already existed (Star Trek: TNG's 'Remember Me' has some vague relation), but I have a strong memory of being pretty fascinated by this when it first aired. It's still good fun to watch now, and seeing Christopher Heyerdahl in the first of what will be many appearances in this and other sci-fi franchises is always a good thing. He brings a calming but emotional quality to his work, and I was always jealous of his hair.
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@lefthandedguitarist That hair is a thing of beauty.
A fantastic show of acting from Michael Shanks who manages to convey the different personalities very well. I was especially affected by his portrayal of the young boy and found it quite emotional. I think that Doctor Frasier gets some great stuff to do here too. I wish she had been given a more prominent role a lot of the time.
I will say that the episode is a little inconsistent, or at the least confusing with some of the more technical information given. The final solution is kind of glossed over. We are told that separating the personalities isn't possible (and the excellent water jug demonstration really helps us understand the issues), but in the end it turns out yes, the ship can fix it after all.
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@lefthandedguitarist My understanding of the solution was that they couldn't restore the individuals to their own containment, but Daniel's consciousness was stored comalike and suppressed in his own brain in a way that kept him separate from the others.
So in the end, they just pulled all the other minds out of Daniel in a full package and as a result, his mind returned to full dominance.
Clipshow episode #2, and they are still a bit painful to sit through. Much like 'Politics', the surrounding story is moderately enticing and I always liked the way that Stargate at least tried to make clipshow episodes fun. The re-use of existing sets in a new capacity is clever enough as yet another method of saving money, but still this episode is difficult to really get into. It lacks the spark and heightened tension that 'Politics' had. However, one thing I did kind of appreciate was that the clips actually related to each other, and were put together in a way that summed up the overarching alien narratives so far.
The reveal of Hathor isn't all that welcome given that her previous appearance was one of the worst episodes of the entire series, but they do better here. The episode has a really awkward moment when we see the two "future" base staff speaking Goa'uld, because the performances there are laughably bad.
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tbh I was pleasantly surprised at how much original footage this part incorporated. Like you, I didn't care for the last episode Hathor appeared in, but with fewer/shorter flashbacks and less lethargic pacing I think this would be a pretty good episode.
There was enough here to hook me in to continue watching. It suffers from the tired YA tropes and some truly awful exposition in the dialogue, but I like the characters and most of the actors seem decent. Not easy to understand much of what was going on but it settled down. There's a lot of room for improvement, but it already feels head and shoulders above the other Netflix teenage fantasy shows.
I found that I couldn't take the name Pekka seriously.
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@lefthandedguitarist xD same for the name Inej; in French it sounds like "It snows"
Review by LeftHandedGuitarist
EDIT: I changed my mind. Looking back, I liked this show more than I say I did. The cast are fun and likeable, even if I never fell in love with their characters.
Hey, everyone, I made it! I got through my least favourite Star Trek show for the first time after numerous attempts. And I have to say, I didn't completely hate the journey.
But, this is how it ends? That's it? What a thoroughly disappointing way to finish things. The finale introduces some random new plot elements that really don't work and just come out of nowhere (Tuvok's disease and the Chakotay/Seven relationship - which did have some hints but they were completely from Seven's imagination, so this feels jarring), and worst of all we get no proper resolution to so many things.
Voyager arrives back home and there's zero emotional payoff; we don't get to see their welcome back or any reunions with family and friends. Tom's father is on the screen when they make it back and doesn't acknowledge his son sitting right there. What's going to happen to the Maquis crew members now? B'Elanna gives birth but we don't get introduced to the baby or even find out what they name her. Seven asks to have the Doctor perform the procedure on her which will "unlock" her ability to feel the full range of emotions, but we don't even know if he actually does that. In just the previous episode, the Doctor declared his love for Seven but that's not addressed at all.
Instead, the final episode decides to spend its time on another dull Borg story that feels like it lacks any impact. Voyager has defeated these guys so many times now that it feels pointless for them to keep encountering them (and this time they have convenient future tech). Yes, it's nice to have Alice Krige reprise her role as the Borg Queen, but the episode doesn't actually do anything interesting with her. The entire bullheaded mission of future Admiral Janeway is dubious at best and depicts her as extremely selfish.
The entire show was a missed opportunity to do something interesting, and it chose to stay as safe as possible all the way through. Any time the series did do something good, it was forgotten about and not mentioned again (remember when Seven's nanites were discovered to be a cure for death? Sure would have been useful to do that again. Remember the previous episode when the Delta Flyer's communications were destroyed so Janeway transmitted a message through the deflector? Why hasn't that been used in the uncountable times communications were down?).
The show had some really good characters, though. The Doctor was the standout by a long way and the introduction of Seven was a good move. Captain Janeway is inconsistent in her actions and motives, but Kate Mulgrew was never less than fantastic in the role. I just wish everyone had some evolution across the show. Harry, Tom, Tuvok, Neelix, Chakotay: they really never changed their personalities (and this even applies to the Doctor and Seven). There's an argument that everyone became a better person, but I say that nothing about them actually evolved. The fact remains that I just don't care about characters like Tuvok or Chakotay, because they never felt like real people.
Still, it is an easy and entertaining watch and in the end it is Star Trek and delivers a lot of the storytelling and universe that makes me feel cosy. I just probably won't watch it again (hmm... maybe if it's given an HD upgrade and released on blu-ray). I know the show has a lot of fans and if you like it then that's great, but I don't think I'll ever quite understand why.
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@lefthandedguitarist Still, it is an easy and entertaining watch and in the end it is Star Trek and delivers a lot of the storytelling and universe that makes me feel cosy. I just probably won't watch it again (hmm... maybe if it's given an HD upgrade and released on blu-ray). I know the show has a lot of fans and if you like it then that's great, but I don't think I'll ever quite understand why.
I can get 100 % behind that. The HD upgrade will probably never happen since it is too expensive. Same with DS9. I don't know how many times I've now watched Voyager but it must have been at least 4-5 times over the years. Like I did with all the other shows up to Enterprise.
Sadly, every time I watched VOY I liked it less while with the rest it's the other way around.
This one fails to be quite engaging enough to make me care about Shan'auc and her crusade despite a strong guest appearance from Musetta Vander. It's all very lifeless and flat. They really wanted to separate Teal'c from all memories of his wife, didn't they? But it does end well and sets up some intriguing future stories.
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@lefthandedguitarist Agreed. My most pressing question is how did a goa'uld symbiote that was cared for and raised on Chulak under Apophis's reign have genetic memories of his sworn enemy Cronus from as recently as Teal'c's father's death in order to show it to Teal'c?
Stargate did clipshow episodes, a money-saving measure that was an unfortunate necessity for many American television shows at that time. They are never fun to watch. This franchise did at least try to make the episodes as interesting as it could, though. In fact, the Stargate clipshows could sometimes be some of the more important ones for pushing the overall story forward. 'Politics' definitely falls under that description, making it a necessary watch.
Outside of the clips, the episode is actually fantastic. The introduction of Senator Kinsey gives us a really loathsome villain who is a lot of fun to watch, especially with all the verbal sparring that accompanies him. The SGC become ever more desperate as they attempt to defend the Stargate program to a person who has already made up his mind. It's a one-room episode that works really well, and the introduction of more political elements to the show opens things up for some good future conflicts.
But, I just can't excuse the use of all the clips from previous episodes. They are also taken from a number of the more awkward episodes, making them even less appealing. Well, at least we can be thankful that they didn't use anything from 'Hathor', I guess.
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@lefthandedguitarist Given the dramatic impact of this episode's events, I wish it had been objectively better. I'm sure you know as well as I do that it's possible to tell a good sci-fi story without having to leave your home base/ship/whatever, but this ain't it chief. They should have asked the DS9 or Voyager writing teams for advice :joy_cat:
A truly great episode which starts as one thing and then becomes something very different. This gives us a little bit of everything, though it's mostly really meaty intrigue and mystery. The inner workings of the Stargate program and other elements of the US government really come to the fore here. I remember watching this in the '90s and being blown away at the revelation that the second Stargate was secretly being used. Plus, it casually throws in callbacks to several previous episodes along the way.
But alongside the twisty reveals and fun, I love that this is a great character piece for almost everyone involved. General Hammond gets a lot to do here and it continues to reveal more of the warmer side of his personality. And of course, the love-to-hate-him character that is Maybourne pops up again and is simply great (even if he's still not the character he will become).
Any criticisms I have come in the form of the people of Madronas. The actors are quite frankly awful and really spoil things. Is the old man supposed to be blind or confused or constipated? It's hard to tell.
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@lefthandedguitarist I agree. As irritating as he is in the early episodes, Maybourne is a great part of the series.
And it's so odd that the leader of the Madronans comes back later on as Moros and performs so much better. Makes me wonder if this was an off day or intentional for the character.
This is one of the best episodes at showing there is always more going on than what we see of the day to day of the SGC. That there are plans going on behind the scenes and helps highlight the reasons we love our heroes and love to hate the seedy politicians and their attack dogs.
For fuck sake, just make a DNA test. Bloody sloppy writers!
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@pjonsson They did do that... It's not sloppiness to assume the kid wasn't who he said he was, just typical of a top-secret facility. So why would they test his DNA before they began to think he might be telling the truth? Also, DNA tests don't generally come back as quickly as they do on crime shows, or they wouldn't have done in 2003, when this episode was made. Frankly, in plot terms this is one of the least sloppily-written episodes of SG-1, and I'm not insulting the rest by saying that, either.
