The Tok'ra (Part Two)

DVD, The Tok'ra (Part Two)

So begins the first day of the rest of his life. Jacob Carter could go on to outlive his daughter, which is weird, and one of the many strange things that he'll have to get used to now that he's got a symbiont. If this episode is any gauge he'll take it all in his stride! It was remarkable how quickly he accepted the world-changing knowledge of the Stargate and aliens, but having his daughter tell him while the steady and grounded presence of General Hammond corroborated it, must have made such outlandish tales more believable. It's the first time we've had the pleasure of seeing the secrets of the series revealed to a regular human, and for it to be Sam's dying father was a nice touch.

He became a little too sprightly for me once he'd gone through the Stargate. Think about it, he'd been dying in a hospital bed a few minutes earlier, at death's door, and now he has all this amazing, top-secret stuff thrown at him, he has a wild ride through the gate, has a short walk on a desert planet and meets aliens. Surely he'd be collapsing with exhaustian? It must be argued that the novelty of it all, added to the hope of living beyond what he expected must have given him nervous energy and a head full of questions. If you were suddenly energised you'd no longer want to lie there pondering your last minutes near death and it would give you new strength. That's how I buy it, anyway.

It's a bit shocking to find one of the Tok'ra was a spy, and puts their worries of hypothetical security issues of associating with the Tari to bed. It was all very 'Empire Strikes Back' what with the underground base and the evil forces on the way. Thankfully the 'I am your father' is a comfort on this occasion. The weight of what's happened to Jacob and for Earth is well manoeuvred, if rushed, but the situation resolves itself nicely and becomes another running thread of which there are several this season which could be picked up at any time. It's good that they're trying harder to expand the remit of the series beyond a 'Star Trek' copycat, and the planet of the week is no longer the driving force.

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