The Enemy Within

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S1 (The Enemy Within)

In many ways this is a triumphal episode. Often the first episode to follow the pilot tends to be relatively weak, after the first burst of creativity, much is left to be established as ongoing development. While the episode doesn't have location shooting, or big action sequences it is probably the finest of the first season due to it's expert use of the characters and in particular Major Kowalski. The fact he was such an everyman, likeable and ready for action, makes his loss a lot harder than most characters whom you've only seen in a couple of episodes. That he managed to make you care when he's to be operated on, aghast at the goa'uld's actions through him, and ultimately sad that he was defeated, is great praise on the actor. Perhaps he was too much representative of O'Neill's past and they wanted to move forward and create bonds within the team which would seem lessened if he had another, older friend to talk to. I think it would have been better to have him as a recurring character.

His sacrifice is not in vain, as it leads to a tightly directed, wittily scripted, excitingly dangerous story, that also concerns Teal'c's status of serving on the SG team. Those scenes are a superb exhibition of that character that he wasn't given in his first appearance, and in a way this was the third part of the pilot rather than being the first standalone, and that is why it doesn't suffer the usual fate. The title sequence, however is different, with the montage they used for the whole of the first season, rather than the much more mysterious and less typical closeup of the sarcophagus seen in the pilot, and used in later seasons, and which I preferred, especially as this new one can't help but give away moments from upcoming episodes.

Let's face it, you can't be a sci-fi TV series to be taken seriously unless you have an episode with this title! They've all done it; 'Star Trek', 'BUGS', etc, it's only a surprise they got it in this early!

Sometimes the series could be a bit ponderous, with the military base giving the visuals a dullness, but this episode proves you don't need vibrant sets and colours to make a great episode, and the way it's shot making full use of widescreen, with wide-angle lenses, and smooth, fluid shots and an energy that was sometimes lacking, is what achieves this. O'Neill is on fine form, and the only downside is that Daniel spends the episode looking concerned in reaction to the previous episode, and with Carter only a background player. These are minor objections for what is a fine piece of TV.

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