posted
Woo! Reversals were seen. Drama was in effect. There was music and special effects. Not a bad cliffhanger for the midseason hiatus!
-Colonel Barnes, Lieutenant Fisher and Airman Ryan hail from SG-6, and have been undercover on one of many wackbards planets being visited by the Priors (this one was actually pointed to them by the Sodan, which becomes relevant later). In a few short months, the Ori have managed to get dozens of worlds to convert - looks like the void left by the Goa'uld has been underestimated, and inasmuch as one "god" has been known to replace another in a conquered world when the Goa'uld were around, the Ori have conveniently been filling the place where the snakes once were.
-Gerak has been swayed. As a representative of the more traditional ways of the Jaffa, despite rising to power in the new democracy, he has had a similar void that he has filled - and believes it. Bra'tac (where's he been all this time, hmm?) suggests that many of the council, being so old and closed, are seeking something beyond their life, and the Ori have been able to give them tangible promise of ascension and enlightenment - more so than their belief in Kheb ever did. Ironically, when Bra'tac, Teal'c and SG-1 FOUND Kheb, they probably helped these Jaffa moderates on the path to their own downfall.
-Hey, we finally find out what's happened to Hammond! The old goat is now apparently retired, though he seems to maintain some office and authority in the SCG or the international committee that runs it; the SFs that spirited him away wouldn't have done so otherwise. I'm guessing that now that Hammond is past the USAF mandatory age for retirement (far past, really, but who's counting?), he's taken up a civilian position on the committee. This in turn explains what happened to O'Neill - as the next in line, he took Hammond's old job as military rep and dude in charge of Homeworld Security. While this was little more than a bit part without any of the regulars, it's still great to see Don again.
-This show is shot in Vancouver. Every time you see F-16s in the background (the other notable time being the "Redemption" two-parter), they actually get the USAF to fly a couple up to the set. The producers have a really good relationship with the Air Force (they even have a protocol officer on staff to keep them in line, a la "JAG"), but it's neat to know they have this kind of influence. American tax dollars at work, folks.
-Teal'c and Bra'tac retreat once again to Chu'lak, thier original home, to start their resistance movement against the Jaffa converts. We haven't seen the place in a while, but it's likewise odd that we haven't seen the palace and dungeons characteristic of the first couple seasons - it's been tents and huts for a while now, not unlike Abydos. Has the place been razed at some point by Apophis or some other Goa'uld?
-Orlin! The kid does a mighty job of chanelling Sean Patrick Flannery's performance, but the his voice doesn't really do it.
-And the revelation - the Ori literally LIVE off of the devotion given to them by their converts. Sorta like feeding off the euphoria at an evangelist's show. Perhaps this hints at the Wraith's feeding... They likewise live off of a victim's life force, albeit in a more direct way.
-The Doci, played by Julian Sands, was not new footage - it was taken from "Origin". I guess they want to bring Julian back sometime, and didn't want to do so for a token appearance.
-Mitchell's Sodan training hasn't dulled! And along with them, it's SG-22 again. One wonders if they shot thie scene whil they were out there filming that episode, and just used the existing setup and costumes to save a bit o' cash.
-And our zinger today, is that Gerak has been... Prior-itized! You gotta wonder though if this is a strategic move by the Ori, or if the Prior-itization process really mucks up your brain, and that you (apparently) don't have to be a life-long devotee as that other Prior guy was. That, and given that Gerak had faltered the commands of the Prior, seem to suggest some degree of mental reconditioning to make them more amenable to being televangelists.
-Note that as a Prior, it seems that the gold mark of First Prime has been literally melted off of his head. It looks like it sorta flowed down his face, where it solidified as one of the scarred markings characteristic of a Prior. Spooky!
posted
Meh, I'll bet that Terry Pratchett read Peter Pan. ("I do believe in fairies!")
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: And the revelation - the Ori literally LIVE off of the devotion given to them by their converts. Sorta like feeding off the euphoria at an evangelist's show. Perhaps this hints at the Wraith's feeding... They likewise live off of a victim's life force, albeit in a more direct way.
After thinking about this for a while, I've got two questions on this plot point.
1) Seeing as we were just reminded of good ol' Anubis the previous episode, did we ever see any evidence that Anubis got more powerful with more followers? Not that there's a problem if there isn't, since he was only partially ascended, but I'm just curious.
2) Orlin states that the Ancients' "hands-off" policy towards mortals is because they don't want to be tempted to gain power through their worship. However, I think we've seen a few places that worship the Ancients anyway (most recently the Sodan). Can/do the Ancients choose not to accept the power of mortal worship?
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I think reducing the whole mystery of the Ori(i?) to a series of dull lectures by a kid was probably a mistake.
Like, I really, really, really disliked this episode. I was hoping that that would be the consensus so that I could hop on the bandwagon and be popular, but, no dice.
I think SG-1 has been on a decline since the end of season 5, and one of the reasons this episode disappointed me so was that up till now I felt things were on the upswing again. I didn't care for the Arthurian business at the beginning but that very quickly went away in favor of the more interesting religious conflict stuff. As large a part of the show as O'Neill was, not having to come up with a way to split the team every week has helped the stories out a lot.
But, anyway, seeing as how I liked most every episode up to this point, I figure I'll probably like most of the ones after.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The Arthurian stuff will be coming back to bite us in the ass...
But I've also been enjoying the re-invigorated SG-1. My only beef has been the lack of development for Mitchell, which I hope is forthcoming. I do miss the old team, but there's life in this series yet. Better than the last couple seasons overall, with the lack of the team chemistry and the shooting schedule causing the loss of focus in many episodes (they were shooitng up to three episodes simultaneously just to accomodate RDA).
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