Exodus

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S4 (Exodus)

Heavy on talk, light on much else, this follows the established pattern of being a bit of a damp squib to end the season, like they're treading water until they force the pieces into place for a cliffhanger ending, no bad thing in itself, but wasting the majority of the episode. The continuity hangs over it like a weight, with lists of dead Goa'uld, reminders of all the Tok'ra/Apophis stories and a general waffle about the situation things have come to. The colour palette, something which shouldn't make any difference to the enjoyment of an episode if the story is good enough, stuck in my mind, proving I wasn't engaged. The first half everything was beige: the sandy planet the Tok'ra base was on, the desert combat uniforms, the Tok'ra's wardrobe, it was all porridge, the story feeling like it was sat in a bowl of the stuff, not going anywhere. Then the second half was all black, the ship they travel on, space, and not even some good effects work (for ten years ago) could pull me out of apathy.

There were a lot of 'Star Wars' ideas in there, only they were scaled on a TV budget, and one that had reached the bottom of the purse, or so it seemed to me - the desert location looks like they made an effort, but what happened there was mostly dull. The Tok'ra base that has to be abandoned because Apophis and his fleet of ships are on the way is 'The Empire Strikes Back,' we get the huge round thing that has to be blown up - this time it's a star rather than the Death Star, but the idea's the same. We even have all the decoy death gliders flying off like that bit at the end of 'A New Hope' just before the Trench run. There's Teal'c and O'Neill going off on a separate tangent to everyone else, a bit like Luke going off in his X-Wing alone, there's even the scene where the two of them are walking in the desert that made me think of C-3PO and R2-D2. I'm not suggesting they shouldn't use 'Star Wars' for inspiration or even that they did all this intentionally, but even with all the stuff talked - the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld and Tanith the spy they were feeding false information, it feels quite generic space sci-fi.

Whenever they go off in these spaceships it always comes off feeling like a second-rate 'Star Trek,' and I find it works better when the series is playing to its strengths, which tend to be missions on planets and weird stuff happening with the 'gate. I also felt there was a danger that Stargates could lose their lustre if they're shown to be disposable items that are easy come, easy go, such as when they loose the one aboard the ship so it can fly into the star, tying into the established address of the black hole planet. The visuals were good, the concept cheapens the 'gate a little.

Apophis is the guy who keeps coming back. They've done a lot with him over the four years, at his best when he died. I have the idea people were getting a bit tired of him by this point, a symptom of not really learning much about him or deepening his character with each appearance. He's become a mere menace, and a personal enemy for the team. I can almost begin to see why they moved away from the character in other seasons and I sense he ain't going to last much longer. Plus, how many times can they play Teal'c captured by one of these enemies who wants him dead and yet they always take ages to get around to killing him and he escapes! Not that I want to see Teal'c dead. One of the few things that hinted at being compelling was his conversation with Daniel about vengeance, and it would be interesting to see that developed, because Teal'c is a warrior so he would be more inclined towards such violent reprisal, but you also hope that being with humans might have made him question some of those things.

There isn't an awful lot of character to the story, and Tanith was just as Jack described him, a walking cliche. The sinister, villainous way he spoke was unnecessary and shines a harsh light on the lack of dimension that is often inherent in the series. What keeps me coming back is the interplay between the main four, and I felt even that was lacking this time as mainly it was technobabble or political comment between them. The cliffhanger succeeds in leaving me wondering, but I wish it had been arrived at logically or that a more enjoyable story could have built to it. Both Apophis' ship (with the captured Teal'c aboard), and the team's ship (with Jacob aboard), are knocked out of hyperspace when escaping the star's shockwave leaving them stranded over a hundred years from home space and in another galaxy. Radical. Not remembering what happens next I sincerely hope the opening to Season 5 makes the most with that scenario.

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