The season’s start is reassuring. There’s elements that I hope are emphasised over the duration of this double digit season, because for every good thing in the show I saw something that gives me consternation.¹ After strong seasons of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, I want my favourite sci-fi to hold it’s end up.

Daniel and Vala are a great pair. They’ve got history, sexual tension and have decent dialogue. Both are quick thinking and fun to watch. Mitchell and Sam looked flat by comparison. They didn’t negatively impact this episode — Sam avoided her usual spoutation of claptrap and Mitchell was charged with the burden of moving the plot forward — but they have unrealised potential. I still believe that Sam could be involved in a compelling story but the odds are long. Mitchell has a greater chance; I liked what he did in season nine² and I’m sure he’ll be utilised again, just that his main contribution to this episode was his failure to convince Bra’tac to not die kamikaze-style.

I like the transformation of the status quo to a similar situation to the beginning of the show. Although I should be worried about the rehashing of old ideas, the familiarity is reassuring. SG-1 do their best work against the odds.

I am worried that the Ori, with their definite goal of galactic conversion, will be forced to sit on their collective arses until the end of the season two-parter.³ The goa’uld were happy to mind their own business but I expect the Ori to be actively conquering and subjegating all season.

Vala’s kid is an interesting touch. She started with a disappointing “Hello mother, I’m creepy kid” but picked up when she dropped that attitude. I hope Vala and Daniel get another chance to appeal to her human side.

In between the Vala / Daniel scenes, Mitchell and Sam were wrapping up the loose threads from the cliffhanger. I thought it important to establish that the Lucian Alliance were still enemies and liked the slow reveal of what happened to each character but, as much as I’d like to deny it, it was filler. The writers didn’t want to start any new plots so stretched things out to take a whole episode. The episode doesn’t have the excitement that I feel about the new season but I look at Doctor Who‘s second season which built on a poor first episode. I can hope.

1. Or had something pointed out to me. ↩
2. Except for the ‘does not give up’ attitude. ↩
3. The repressed trauma from watching Buffy‘s season seven has not been dealt with. I don’t want such problems to affect a show I care about. ↩

This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Monday, July 24th, 2006. It concerns such pressing issues as Stargate SG-1, tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.