Counterstrike
I have a confession. I know killing people is wrong, killing lots of people is even wronger, and killing lots of innocent people is the most wrongest thing of all. I don’t approve of murderers, serial killers or genociders. But, given the chance, I’d kill a thousand villagers to gain control of an Ori ship. It’s morally ambiguous but I assure you I wouldn’t go much higher. I’ve got a limit, I’ve got my standards. No more than a ten to fifteen thousand deaths per ship, tops.
I don’t think you appreciate just how necessary it is to obtain the Ori’s ships. Let me give you an example. My brother and I used to play Age of Empires 2. Each race has a powerful unit, unique to that race. These units are much stronger than the rest of the of the units. As a result, my brother and I would almost solely build these unique units. The best are the Persians as they have War Elephants that do trample damage to all surrounding units. The Persians are my favourite race but the only strategy necessary to win is to deploy your War Elephants as fast as you can. The second best race is the Teutons with their Teutonic Knights. Like the War Elephant, Teutonic Knights are slow but tough. So tough that they can only be beaten by War Elephants. I stopped playing with the Persians because I liked the challenge of defeating the Teutonic Knights without using War Elephants. Our games ended in a stalemate after we stripped our lands of all natural resources or with the Teutonic Knights pillaging my town.
The best strategy I had was to use monks to convert the Teutonic Knights to my side, then fight his knights with my knights. The point is that the Jaffa can only beat the Ori by using the Ori’s ships against them. They can’t discover an ancient artifact at the last possible moment like SG-1 can. I think the Jaffa made their mistake in not attacking the three remaining Ori ships simultaneously.
A thousand people don’t have to die. Luring the ships to a remote location near a stargate would work. Launching a stargate out of a cargo bay at an Ori ship would work. The Jaffa lack ingenuity.
Whether a thousand innocent people die or not, once you have a ship, there’s so much more choice. It could be taken apart and researched. It could sneak up behind another Ori ship or you could keep zapping the Ori ships with the stargate weapon until you collect them all. If I were Landry, I’d complain about the inefficient use of the weapon or the endangering of SG-1’s lives rather than the loss of the people. Still I like his and Bra’tac’s meeting with the new Jaffa leader, Se’tak, who wants to know what the Tau’ri have done from him lately. Although he was morally flexible, I think it was Se’tak’s egomaniacal behaviour that got him killed. He was a rational and interesting character at the start but as he went madder his demise became inevitable.
This whole episode was great, but my favourite part was the Daniel-Vala-Adria conversation. They’re so passionate and convinced that they can convert each other to their side. These scenes have a higher standard of dialogue than the rest of the episode and I look forward to at least a couple more before the series ends.
I’m getting attached to Colonel Emerson, with his sensible backing up of SG-1 and clever guessing at the enemies actions. It’s going to be sad when he dies pointlessly in the mid-season break.
636
Jack
August 28th, 2006 at 6:38 am
It’s unfortunate about portrayal of Se’Tak. I was also quite sympathetic towards the Jaffa position, despite the fact the episode clearly didn’t want us to be.
I’m perhaps imagining things. But I prefer the BSG approach where the episode let’s us makeup our own mind about who is morally right. I can’t articulate exactly how, but the vibe from this episode was definitely “The Humans are right, and we want you to agree”.
But like I said, I’m probably imagining it.
This was my favourite episode in a long long time. I hope this is a sign of things to come. I like the resorting to C4 approach to blow up ships. Classic SG-1 technique.
Still, I hope the humans get punished for their arrogance when it comes to their presumed moral high ground. I hope they have to make a similar choice further down. I’m sick of them clinging to it without question when the fate of everyone in the galaxy is at stake. You think one of them would have thought it was a good idea.
Poor Jaffa. It’s unlukcy the went for the Orisi’s ship first.
Emerson won’t die at the mid-season break. I think he should get his own spin-off.
Andy
August 28th, 2006 at 6:59 am
You’re quick.
You’re not imagining it. Stargate does shades of dark grey and off-white. The audience was supposed to be on Landry’s side because nobody likes genocide but the writers not wanting to make the Jaffa look evil or stupid gave Se’tak a reasonable thought out position and argument. It might have been Landry’s arrogance or your irrational hatred of Bra’tac that prejudiced you against them.
There are few situations in life when having the option “d) blow up the c4” would not be useful.
Tom
August 28th, 2006 at 8:20 am
Excuse me. I’m the one with the irrational hatred of Bra’tac. Except it’s perfectly rational and surprisingly intense.
I too felt that Landry wasn’t using all the arguments at his disposal. While I agree with Landry’s position (despite the fact that they’ve been known to make similar compromises in the past, or at least the Atlantis crew have), he could have also emphasised the fact that the Jaffa should have damned well told the humans so that an effective double-strike could have been organised.
I like plot-heavy SG-1. That’s where it’s strengths are. I also liked the foreshadowing of some Ori plan involving Daniel. Sounds cooler than your garden-variety evil plan. Perhaps they’re gonna give him control of Wolfram & Hart? You know it makes sense.
hayko
August 28th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
It was a tiny bit too predictable for my liking, again. Also I didn’t like how entirely immune Adria became later on. A simple shield, eh?
10 years of rescuing the galaxy and they still don’t do well out-smarting their enemies. They just seem to cut the time Sam needs to write a new software to interface the underworks of the enemy ships.
I actually believe Adria will fall in the discussion battle. True, Vala’s arguments aren’t the most ingenius ones’ but Daniel is doing well. And I think I saw her hesitate there for a second before wanting to create a new toy boy for herself.
It’s good that Stargate is cancelled, this way they can only recruite so many actors from other cancelled shows before it’s all over.
Tom
August 28th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Adria was entirely immune from the beginning of the episode, wasn’t she? I’m disturbed by your lack of faith in Origin, Hayko.
SG-1 are often forced to be stupid for the sake of the plot but this time I felt it was the Jaffa who suffered that fate. And I don’t mind that so much. SG-1 were in a pretty unexpected and tricky situation, and I think they did the best they could.
If it wasn’t for some of these actors from cancelled shows, it wouldn’t be nearly as good. Let’s have more! Would you say no to Jewel Staite, Hayko? (yes, yes, she’s already been in Atlantis, I know)
Andy
August 28th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Once SG-1 is cancelled all the sci-fi actors will be let back into the wild, free to migrate to other shows. I know a certain British sci-fi that needs a new companion. I think the Doctor and Sam would be a great match.
Adira’s immune and SG-1 can be teleported away. It’s ideal for conversations.
I don’t think SG-1 did anything wrong ni this episode, aside from Sam’s choice of hat.
Jack
August 29th, 2006 at 1:39 am
I forgot about that cool forshadowing with Daniel. Yes! Please! If nothing else, I want Stargate to end with Daniel being freaking awesome while at the same time not getting himself killed/punished by the ancients.
hayko
August 29th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
That would indeed make for a nice twist. Daniel being powerful and freaky, again.
But Adria was gone for some time the first time. It almost seemed like she had to recover or hide until the wave had diminished. Second and consecutive times, she just pushed a button and went on happily.
I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Jewel Staite, no sir.
Andy
August 29th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
She was hiking back to the ship. The Stargate guys beam in and out but she’d have had to walk.
Tom
September 24th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
I was just wandering past when I noticed your semi-accurate prediction of Emerson’s death. Only one episode off. Not bad. Note to self; never hang around major characters for too long without becoming an integral member of their team.
I hope it was an honest prediction.
Andy
September 25th, 2006 at 3:17 am
If it was a dishonest prediction it would have been more accurate. Emerson had lived longer than most starship captain’s so it was his turn to die.