Stargate SG1 season 2
We go straight from defeating Apophis in the first episode (following a cliffhanger at the end of the last season!) – including truly hilarious CGI of NASA’s shuttle, and also the hilarious suggestion that the shuttle could be launched with zero notice – to Sam getting infected by a Goa’uld, and suddenly we discover the existence of the Tok’ra. Again, not something I remembered starting this early.
Across this season we get reference to “the System Lords” as if it’s something we’ve been talking about for many episodes, but I’m pretty sure it’s not. Plus I remain confused as to why Daniel is compelled to wear that ridiculous floppy hat while Jack and Sam get caps. I mean, I understand it’s meant to make him look goofy – it’s the sartorial equivalent of his equally floofy and floppy hair. But still.
“The Gamekeeper” is one of the more harrowing episodes so far – Jack and Daniel being put through the emotional wringer as a game. And then very soon after, Daniel being corrupted by the sarcophagus – it’s fascinating that he’s played as the most vulnerable of the whole team because of his depths of compassion. Of course, this gets more complicated in later seasons, and I do love it as a continuing exploration of his character. It’s also an example of Michael Shanks actually being a good actor – he doesn’t get much opportunity to showcase a range of emotion usually.
Poor old Daniel only gets a bit of personal development in the first half of this season: in “Gamekeeper” we learn his parents were also archaeologists or similar and they were killed in a museum accident; his wife is largely forgotten. Still that’s more than either Jack or Sam gets. Teal’c gets much more – the whole Rya’c storyline is interesting enough, although I don’t love it. And I can’t begin to say how much I loathe the fact Teal’c calls his wife “woman” – something about a heroic culture requiring misogyny?
… the problem with writing this as I watch, rather than at the end – so that I don’t forget these oh-so-erudite points – is that then things change completely: the episode after I wrote the above, we get an episode I had completely forgotten: Sha’re is back home, pregnant with Apophis’ child. Daniel has to decide whether he can still love his wife after she has been raped (happily, doesn’t take very long to choose Yes – which is an interesting difference from Teal’c, who struggles to deal with his wife having agreed to a new husband so that she and their son could have a decent life). Tragically, they only have a brief period together before the Goa’uld returns. (Daniel also gets to threaten Apophis when the SGC have him as a prisoner.) And we get Sam’s dad in the same episode, an Air Force general still trying to organise his daughter’s life while he’s dying of cancer. Both of these events – the child and the fact that Papa Carter chooses to blend with a Tok’ra – have enormous repercussions for the next few seasons… and further in personal lives. we keep playing on the loss of Jack’s son, too, giving him new sons to connect with (and lose).
Meanwhile, the SG1 must finally face some consequences of their actions: they destroyed the anti-Goa’uld defence system set up by Thor, and then that planet gets invaded, so SG1 goes back to try to help out. And hooray, we get The Real Thor! – another case of “already??” Plus they go to a planet where they fear they might have introduced a disease – and for the first time there’s concern that this is something that might happen when meeting new folks. Along those same lines, I appreciate that the show does sometimes examine moral quandaries. Like whether they should just shoot that snakehead Apophis out of hand, or take him prisoner and try to make use of him.
Remember those useless end-of-season recap episodes that occurred when you had 22-24 episodes dropping weekly? At least Stargate has so far been somewhat clever – last season, Senator Kinsey being an arse but nonetheless making some uncomfortably sensible points; this season, the team seem to be in the future but are actually being held captive, and made to remember some of the peoples they’ve encountered. Still, I forwarded through all of the recap bits (again). The joys of the DVD.
Further opportunities for actual acting: Daniel being inhabited by Marcello, Jack and Teal’c swapping bodies (mostly this is a Chris Judge opportunity, not so much for Richard Dean Anderson).
Costuming hilarity: there’s one planet where the humans appear to be naked, with body paint. It’s very obvious that they have zips up the back of their outfits; there’s also wrist and neck edges. (Most of the actors in this episode, though, are wonderful physical actors.) PLUS I am 100% certain the only reason for the episode “1969” is so that they could put the team into those ridiculous outfits.
Stats:
- Sam gets a raw deal for being female: 0 (hooray! Progress!)
- Someone falls madly in love Sam: 1
- Sam reciprocates: 0
- Jack gets seduced: 0 (impressive! or sad, take your pick)
- Daniel gets seduced: 1
- Sam gets seduced: 0
- Teal’c gets seduced: 0
- The team brings dangerous stuff back to Earth: 7 (urgh Linea) (I’m including black hole gravity)
- Something timey-wimey happens: 4
- Daniel apparently gets killed: 0
- Jack apparently gets killed: 0
- Sam apparently gets killed: 0
- Teal’c apparently gets killed: 0
- This lack of dying is truly impressive across this season. Made up for by…
- Jack gets replaced / becomes an alien avatar: 3 (including swapping with Teal’c, etc)
- One instance of which basically turns him into MacGyver, I realised on this viewing)
- Sam gets replaced: 1 (inc. Jolinar)
- Daniel gets replaced: 2 (ish; can we count the whole multiple-sarcophagus-use experience? I say yes)
- Teal’c gets replaced: 1 (by Jack, etc)
- Sam and Jack have A Moment: 2 (sometimes they’re really brief but I see them)
- Maybourne gets thwarted: 1
- Extra special episodes where it’s not Maybourne: 1
- Specific human cultures represented:
- Native Americans (I don’t know enough about the history of representation of Native Americans to know just how racist this portrayal is… I suspect it’s a combo of somewhat progressive – they’ve got technology! they keep their culture despite the changes! – and racist: the costuming, apparent naivety… plus their spirits are “actually” aliens: which is true for every other culture too; is it worse to do this to a culture still living today? I suspect it might be)
- Goa’uld encountered:
- Apophis and Klorel (poor old Skaara)
- Heru’ur
- Amaunet
- Sokar (kinda)
- Hathor (my girl! that wig is so impressive)
Stargate SG1 season 1
I just realised I should have started this rewatch next year… for the thirtieth anniversary of season 1.
Across this season, many things have happened! There’s a lot of Teal’c background, which I find fascinating: we meet his mentor, Bra’tac, who will become much more important across the seasons; and also his son, Rya’c, and wife, Drey’auc. There’s a whole episode about whether Teal’c is responsible for the deaths that he caused in the service of Apophis, which is a rather remarkable focus for an episode of 1997 television. There’s Daniel’s pain at losing his wife Sha’re, which is an ongoing feature across this season – Daniel is driven by the desire to get her back. There’s also an episode on Jack and his pain at the death of his son Charlie. Interestingly we get basically no background on Sam: there’s a brief mention of her having a brother, and that she misses her nieces, but that’s all. No tragic backstory! Oh also Sam has an ex-fiance, but given he goes fully Kurtz on an ultra-UV planet, that’s no loss.
Meanwhile, the SG1 team destroy a Goa’uld trap in order to rescue Teal’c, challenge the legal structure of another society, and get totally condescended to by the Nox because humans are still incredibly juvenile (but they’re a lot nicer about it than the Tollans). A new sarcophagus is discovered – surprise, Egyptian hieroglyphs rather than Mayan ones! – and it contains Hathor, who proceeds to entrance every man on the base; it’s unclear whether there are no lesbians or bi women, or if Hathor is just regressive. Also we get an episode featuring Catherine, the woman who brought Daniel on to the Stargate programme in the first place – and she’s definitely got a little intergenerational crush on Jack. I appreciate this further nod to the film enormously. And this episode is when we properly understand there’s more aliens out there – there was earlier the suggestion of Thor and his kin, but here we see script from four races that sends Daniel into conniptions. And ah, the Antarctic episode.
And then you get Senator Kinsey, asking questions about the Stargate programme – and for all he’s presented as a bit venal, a self-serving politician who cannot possibly understand the heroics of SG1… it’s hard not to see that he kinda has some points about military secrets, and the military wanting to spend money on fun new toys, etc. My goodness why am I now half on Kinsey’s side?? Do I miss this sort of filler episode? I really do not. Do I understand why they made them back in the day? Sure.
We learn there are more women in the SGC than Sam, Janet, and a few nurses!
Maybourne arrives!
Chris Judge’s downturned mouth gets more and more ridiculous across the season!
And in this season Richard Dean Anderson is the age I am right now.
Stats:
- Sam gets a raw deal for being female: 1
- Someone falls madly in love Sam: 1
- Sam reciprocates: 1
- Jack gets seduced: 2
- Daniel gets seduced: 1
- Sam gets seduced: 0
- Teal’c gets seduced: 0
- The team brings bad stuff back to Earth: 3 (sorry Cassandra)
- Daniel apparently gets killed: 2
- Jack apparently gets killed: 1
- Sam apparently gets killed: 1
- Teal’c apprearntly gets killed: 0
- Jack gets replaced: 2
- Sam gets replaced: 1
- Daniel gets replaced: 1
- Teal’c gets replaced: 1
- Sam and Jack have A Moment: 2 (not including alt!Sam & Jack)
- Maybourne gets thwarted: 1
- Specific human cultures represented: Mongols, Mycenaean, Minoan, Norse
- Goa’uld encountered:
- Apophis
- Hathor (dec.)
- Nirrti, indirectly
- Things I hadn’t realised turned up this early:
- The Nox
- Replicators
- Teal’c’s cap
- Daniel’s bandana
Stargate SG1 s1, e1-4
So I’ve finally caved. It’s been on the cards for a long time, but now seems to be the moment.
I’ve started a rewatch. How long will I last before I give up? How often will I watch? These are not questions I can answer – although I do have a big knitting project to complete…
The things I remembered from ep1: the tissue box; Sam making the comment about reproductive organs. I knew Charlie got a Goa’uld early on, but I forgot it was in the pilot.
So, things we already get in the first three episodes:
- The entirety of the early cast, including the dude in charge of the iris. I don’t remember whether the medic is the same one for a while or not. (But Janet appears in ep4 already, which I’m watching as I type.)
- Sam is already faced with the challenges of travelling while female, and the team are completely fine with her going along with the sartorial expectations. They do at least immediately interfere when they learn she’s going to get raped that evening.
- I won’t deny that I’m 100% here for the sexual tension between Jack and Sam (and yo, Primitive Sam trying to jump Jack’s bones in e4 is hilarious and I’d forgotten it already started at that point) (and I’ve changed this to be e4 not just e3). However, my delight in the Daniel/ Jack dynamic knows no bounds, and we already have that in spades.
- There’s a MacGyver reference in the very first episode. I giggled.
- There’s interesting questions about racism and misogyny in the show. On the one hand: out of four of the SG1 team, one is a black man and one is a woman. That’s good! There are a few black marines/ other SG personnel, and a few folks of Asian descent on base as well early on. There’s Dr Janet, and some of the nurses are women. But there’s no other women on SG teams – in fact I don’t think there ever is. Of the planets the team visits, there’s the excuse that the Goa’uld nabbed people from different regions on Earth, and that explains their general ethnic homogeneity. I don’t have a clear enough memory of the series to recall whether there’s something to be said for the planets they visit over all… but the Mongol-based planet is pretty primitive, with regressive patriarchal attitudes as well as simplistic clothing and ways of living; and then the Minoan planet is a lot prettier – amusing, and unsurprisingly, a distinct lack of bare boobs.
- Speaking of misogyny and boobs: when Apophis is choosing a new bride, he brings first the white, blonde woman – and we see her bare back, and that’s it. Sha’re, though – a brown woman – we see naked, full frontal, for a moment, and her boobs several times. It’s an interesting choice.
- The Jack / Teal’c dynamic is also delightful. Honestly most everything about Teal’c is a delight at this point.
- Episode 4: the first time the team brings back a disease and they Do Unexpected Things. I think this might be my favourite trope of all – definitely more than the “let’s visit a planet and fundamentally challenge their way of life.”
I’m not regretting having started this rewatch. Some of the stories, at least, definitely hold up. Can’t say the same for some of the prosthetics….
Galactic Sububria 33!
In which we wax lyrical about awards, short stories and the love of reading. Because it’s that time of year! You can download us from iTunes, or get us at Galactic Suburbia.
News
Aurealis Awards and Ceremony!
Aqueduct links to 25 commemorations of Joanna Russ
New podcast – How I got my Boyfriend to Read Comics
Last Short Story is on Twitter @lastshortstory
New Galactic Chat: Kirstyn McDermott
What Culture Have we Consumed?
Tansy: The Shattering, Karen Healey
Alex: The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss; How to Suppress Women’s Writing, Joanna Russ; Welcome to Bordertown, Ellen Kushner and Terri Windling; finished Stargate SG1 for the second time.
Alisa: Ken Liu’s Paper Menagerie (F&SF March/April), Joanna Russ’s We Who Are About To
Pet Subject: Last Short Story 2011
Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!
Sanctuary: we give up
We’ve given Sanctuary the pilot and the first ep aaand… I think we give up.
I liked Amanda Tapping as Sam Carter in SG-1, so I didn’t think it unreasonable to chase up her next project (well, after Atlantis). But… this is not Stargate. For a start, Tapping has a ridiculous English accent which I just can’t take seriously. For seconds, even if the action in Stargate was sometimes a bit tacky – and I love it but I’ll grant that – at least they mostly built the sets. Here? It looks like every second shot is done against a blue screen and then the set added in later, because the production company was too cheap to figure out how to do a big-ass gothic pile other than via computer.
I didn’t mind the first episode; the getting-the-team-together thing is often quite interesting too me, and Tapping’s mysterious Dr Magnus clearly had A Past. The slightly-haunted-but-mostly-down-to-earth forensic pysch she recruits had some potential as the audience’s Everyman; I didn’t mind him. And Magnus’ daughter Ashley – Buffy crossed with Whistler from Blade 3, the one played by the Jessica – was humorous in a ham-kinda way. In fact, the best bit of the whole show has been the silly repartee between mother and daughter, where mother worries but only because she’s the one asking daughter to deliberately put herself in harm’s way. So I was willing to watch a few more… but then we watched the first proper ep. And it got my goat. Badly.
How badly? Well, apparently the last recorded mention of bubonic plague was in Scotland in the 800s (wah?). And the Morrigan are an ‘ancient’ myth first recorded in ‘medieval times’ – specifically in Arthur’s day. Yeh. From that point on I was just cranky and unwilling to give it any slack.
If you can tell me that halfway through the season it got better I will reconsider, but at the moment I am considering me and Sanctuary as officially Not Going To Happen.
Galactic Suburbia #19: the Greco-Roman issue
You can get us from iTunes or download us here!
While Alisa is away, Alex & Tansy play… in ANCIENT GREECE! We talk awards, the end of publishing as we know it, stressful feminist debates, Vonda McIntyre, Twitter fiction, Stargate, and whether there’s enough Greek & Roman mythology in modern fantasy.
News
Tansy wins WSFA Small Press Award for Siren Beat;
Last Drink Bird Head Award Winners;
John Joseph Adams takes over from Cat Rambo & Sean Wallace as editor of Fantasy Magazine;
Realms of Fantasy dies: from Shawna McCarthy, and the publisher;
Wiscon committee disappoints through inaction (also here); and then finally moves to disinvite Elizabeth Moon as GoH (warning, many of the comments on that one are pretty awful to wade through); also here and here;
Paul Collins on how the ebook revolution isn’t working so well ;
Cat Valente on tedium, evil, and why the term ‘PC’ is only used these days to hurt and silence people;
Peter M Ball explaining how white male privilege uses requests for civility to silence the legitimate anger of others;
on Vonda McIntyre’s “Dreamsnake”, a controversial Hugo winning novel from 1979 which has been out of print for 10 years; and an interview with Vonda McIntyre about the book.
What have we been reading/listening to?
Tansy: Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson; Blameless, Gail Carriger, Bleed by Peter M Ball, “Twittering the Universe” by Mari Ness, Shine & “Clockwork Fairies” by Cat Rambo, Tor.com.
Alex: Silver Screen, Justina Robson; Sprawl; Deep Navigation, Alastair Reynolds; The Beginning Place, Ursula le Guin; abandoned Gwyneth Jones’ Escape Plans; listening to The 5th Race, ep 1 (Stargate SG1 fan podcast).
Pet Subject
Classical mythology in modern fantasy. Can it still work? Do you have to get it ‘right’?
Book mentioned:
The Firebrand, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Medea, Cassandra, Electra by Kerry Greenwood
Olympic Games, Leslie What
Dan Simmons’ Ilium and Olympos
Gods Behaving Badly, Marie Phillips
Troy, Simon Brown
Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad and Jeanette Winterson’s Weight, also David Malouf’s Ransom – along the same lines as Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin
Robert Holdstock’s Celtika, Iron Grail, Broken Kings
too much Stargate? Never!
I am lucky enough at the moment to have little bit of what I choose to call play money. My natural Scrooge tendencies are too painful to go into here, but suffice to say that splurging – even on thins that I really want and will get a lot of joy out of – is something I struggle with. So I thought long and hard, and eventually decided it would be worth it: I bought the 59 DVD box of Stargate: SG-1. This is a crazy extravagance; I know someone with them already – although theirs are pirated, and of course I don’t have easy access to them. Plus, this comes in a lovely big box, complete with tacky raised circle (aka stargate) on the front.
Anyway, it arrived on Thursday. We watched the entire first season on the weekend – my love didn’t get into show until about season 2 or 3 when we watched it the first time (oh, did I mention that I’ve already seen the whole lot?), so he enjoyed watching that; I also discovered that first time through I missed a disc – three or four episodes, including the wonderful Antarctic episode. We’re now into the second season, and we’re trying to limit ourselves to only two… or so… episodes a night. Hard, though…
Couple of things of note:
* Samantha is cringingly nerdy in the first couple of episodes. I am so glad they sophisticated her.
* Teal’c is fairly painful in these first few seasons; his facial expressions are just ridiculous. And not always convincing.
* Michael Shanks. Daniel Jackson. *sigh* Wonderful!
* Richard Dean Anderson. Jack O’Neill. As above!
I said something to my love as we watched an episode – something about enjoying the interaction between Jack and Samantha – and he turned to me, in ridicule, and asked whether I had bought 59 DVDs just for the sake of a few, frustratingly brief, interactions between the two.
Well, duh.
Stargate – the movie
We watched the original Stargate movie for the first time in a long time the other night. I must admit to a little fangirl flutter of the heart when the theme music started: I had either not realised, or forgotten, that the theme music is the same in the show as it was in the movie. Not surprising, of course. It did give me the giggles to realise just how much I loved SG-1 – we finished it ages ago, and I miss having more episodes to watch. More than I miss FarScape; perhaps not quite as much as West Wing.*
A couple of things I noticed, post-viewing of SG-1:
# Michael Shanks and James Spader – very cool, very similar, at least in playing Daniel. sigh.
# Richard Dean Anderson kicks Kurt Russell as Jack. Completely.
# I had never thought about the fact that they must store sets – in the hopes of re-using them at some stage. Either that or they worked really, really hard at being true to the movie for the show, and I just doubt it.
# There was a three year gap between movie and show. Is that a long time? It seems like a long time.
# The movie was a bit… well… boring. Especially compared with the show. Am I getting old and jaded?
# I cannot wait for the SG-1 movie to be made. There’s nothing on IMdB about it, but seriously… it has to happen.
*Of which we must retrieve seasons 2 and 3 from the in-laws. I love the first season, but there’s only so many times you can watch it with only season 7 as your other option. Oh, and season 5, but that gets a bit depressing.
StarGate
I have, in the past, mentioned how uncomfortable I am about being the over-enthusiastic fan. Nonetheless, having just finished Stargate SG-1 season 10…
The last season was mostly brilliant. The 200th episode was hilarious: a revisit to Wormhole Xtreme!, which makes a lot of sense – the team being asked for their input into a telemovie. This enitre episode was an homage to the rest of the show, as well as a few others. There’s a comment about how weird it is to make a movie from a show that only lasted a few episodes, and T’ealc says there was a lot of interest on DVD… hello, Firefly! But my absolutely favouritest reference, which nearly made me cry with laughter, was Vala trying to convince the producer to create a new show – basically FarScape. Claudia Black was her own character, but Michael Shanks was Crichton and and Ben Browder was Stark. And the producer makes a quip about how he’s never heard of anything like it… Marvellous.
See what I mean about being a fan?
Anyway, the last episode was pretty cool, too, And my theory is that they knew the show was canned (so sad!!) when they were filming the last one, at least – the very last line is something of a reassurance to fans, I think, that there will be more Stargate, eventually.
I do hope so.
Stargate and Doctor Who
I think it’s only just occurred to me that Stargate is a lot like Doctor Who. Everybody speaks English.
Even the Russians.
