100 Reviews: 80
Two days in a row. And back to SG-1, and a very good chance to use my Daniel icon.
SG-1: 1x09: The Torment of Tantalus
This is another really good episode; a lot of high concept sci-fi mixed in with some character drama, expanding the universe of the show as well as its history. And another episode where I’m not sure I have a ton to say.
So I’ll start with Daniel, because he’s easily my easiest access point on this show. While it’s less noticeable when spaced out over weeks, when watched back to back with Thor’s Hammer this is really putting Daniel through a ringer. And I’ve really always felt that what happened in Thor’s Hammer really influenced the way he was here; how quickly he initially backed down when they wanted to shoot up the knowledge machine and then how willing he was to stay behind. For the first, after Jack made him shoot up the Hammer (and I’m not getting over that any time soon) Daniel had been taught that his desires were secondary to saving the team and completing the mission, what’s important to him is not going to matter to anyone, so he lets someone else do the shooting of something that matters to him this time. For the second, Daniel’s started to get less hopeful that what he started this for is going to see a happy ending so he’s clinging tight to the best thing he does have, all the knowledge of the universe he can get by exploring the cosmos, now at his fingertips.
Sure, within the text it’s meant to show the parallels between Daniel and Earnest, and Earnest being able to keep Daniel from making his mistakes, but...that could have been even clearer if Sha’re was mentioned in all this. If the script had had Jack say something along the lines of, “What good are the mysteries of the universe if it doesn’t help you save your wife? Or if you die here without finding her?” On that level it kind of feels like the script forgot about her this episode after she had been a figure in the choices made in TH; but as soon as I insert the unspoken (and I can’t say if intended) subtext of her figuring in, it also leads to the subtext that Daniel...is kind of giving up on her with this episode. And I don’t think Daniel would give up on her selfishly, ‘this is more important to me than finding her’ style; but I can believe he’s losing hope on that front so he’s giving up in favor of something he has hope of doing something with, ‘if I can’t find her at least I’d have something like this’ style.
On a much less thoughtful level: you ever wonder how they turned the Gate in this setup? The Gate doesn’t seem round enough, as the floor cuts it off a bit above the bottom. Guess it’s good they could cut to Daniel during the dialing process so we wouldn’t see that the Gate couldn’t actually turn.
I have always wished Catherine got more to do in the series. But maybe that’s because she reminds me a little of my grandma so I think she’d be a good addition to the cast. It’s not like the show doesn’t have room for occasionally reappearing guest stars, or hell even just being mentioned more often than she gets. Also I’d like to know more about her and Sam working together pre-series, by necessity of the episode we don’t get a lot of them interacting but I would have liked to see it.
Similarly, I’m not sure it makes sense that Daniel wouldn’t have told Catherine he was back before this. Wasn’t he declared dead when he stayed behind on Abydos? But Catherine at least knew he wasn’t dead so he could have had contact with her with at least that less question to deal with. Now that I say that I think, movie Daniel and Catherine I can buy not keeping in touch, but the way the series actors play it...no I don’t buy it. They play it like they spent time bonding and becoming friendly if not outright friends that wasn’t really in the movie we saw (plus TV-Catherine is way more huggy than I would believe of movie-Catherine).
While Daniel, with Catherine and Earnest, is the only one to actually get a character arc in this episode, the team dynamics continue to feel more relaxed and natural, including Hammond’s role in it. While Daniel’s off with meaning of life stuff Sam and Teal’c are just getting business done. And Jack, well mostly so is Jack, but he kind of loses it at the end, and there are definitely reasons people ship Jack and Daniel, but I think I’ll leave it at that. I do think Sam should probably have been a little more obviously interested in the meaning of life stuff, but I don’t have to bend too far to agree she’d be more focused on getting them home, unlike Daniel she isn’t bordering on depression and desperately looking for something to give his (her) life meaning again.
So, having circled around back to that I guess I’ll leave it there.
Next time:
Probably back to TVD, but you never know.
Suggestion box
SG-1: 1x09: The Torment of Tantalus
This is another really good episode; a lot of high concept sci-fi mixed in with some character drama, expanding the universe of the show as well as its history. And another episode where I’m not sure I have a ton to say.
So I’ll start with Daniel, because he’s easily my easiest access point on this show. While it’s less noticeable when spaced out over weeks, when watched back to back with Thor’s Hammer this is really putting Daniel through a ringer. And I’ve really always felt that what happened in Thor’s Hammer really influenced the way he was here; how quickly he initially backed down when they wanted to shoot up the knowledge machine and then how willing he was to stay behind. For the first, after Jack made him shoot up the Hammer (and I’m not getting over that any time soon) Daniel had been taught that his desires were secondary to saving the team and completing the mission, what’s important to him is not going to matter to anyone, so he lets someone else do the shooting of something that matters to him this time. For the second, Daniel’s started to get less hopeful that what he started this for is going to see a happy ending so he’s clinging tight to the best thing he does have, all the knowledge of the universe he can get by exploring the cosmos, now at his fingertips.
Sure, within the text it’s meant to show the parallels between Daniel and Earnest, and Earnest being able to keep Daniel from making his mistakes, but...that could have been even clearer if Sha’re was mentioned in all this. If the script had had Jack say something along the lines of, “What good are the mysteries of the universe if it doesn’t help you save your wife? Or if you die here without finding her?” On that level it kind of feels like the script forgot about her this episode after she had been a figure in the choices made in TH; but as soon as I insert the unspoken (and I can’t say if intended) subtext of her figuring in, it also leads to the subtext that Daniel...is kind of giving up on her with this episode. And I don’t think Daniel would give up on her selfishly, ‘this is more important to me than finding her’ style; but I can believe he’s losing hope on that front so he’s giving up in favor of something he has hope of doing something with, ‘if I can’t find her at least I’d have something like this’ style.
On a much less thoughtful level: you ever wonder how they turned the Gate in this setup? The Gate doesn’t seem round enough, as the floor cuts it off a bit above the bottom. Guess it’s good they could cut to Daniel during the dialing process so we wouldn’t see that the Gate couldn’t actually turn.
I have always wished Catherine got more to do in the series. But maybe that’s because she reminds me a little of my grandma so I think she’d be a good addition to the cast. It’s not like the show doesn’t have room for occasionally reappearing guest stars, or hell even just being mentioned more often than she gets. Also I’d like to know more about her and Sam working together pre-series, by necessity of the episode we don’t get a lot of them interacting but I would have liked to see it.
Similarly, I’m not sure it makes sense that Daniel wouldn’t have told Catherine he was back before this. Wasn’t he declared dead when he stayed behind on Abydos? But Catherine at least knew he wasn’t dead so he could have had contact with her with at least that less question to deal with. Now that I say that I think, movie Daniel and Catherine I can buy not keeping in touch, but the way the series actors play it...no I don’t buy it. They play it like they spent time bonding and becoming friendly if not outright friends that wasn’t really in the movie we saw (plus TV-Catherine is way more huggy than I would believe of movie-Catherine).
While Daniel, with Catherine and Earnest, is the only one to actually get a character arc in this episode, the team dynamics continue to feel more relaxed and natural, including Hammond’s role in it. While Daniel’s off with meaning of life stuff Sam and Teal’c are just getting business done. And Jack, well mostly so is Jack, but he kind of loses it at the end, and there are definitely reasons people ship Jack and Daniel, but I think I’ll leave it at that. I do think Sam should probably have been a little more obviously interested in the meaning of life stuff, but I don’t have to bend too far to agree she’d be more focused on getting them home, unlike Daniel she isn’t bordering on depression and desperately looking for something to give his (her) life meaning again.
So, having circled around back to that I guess I’ll leave it there.
Next time:
Probably back to TVD, but you never know.
Suggestion box