Ascension

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Ascension)

I thought this might be the one where Daniel Jackson leaves the series because of the episode title, although I wasn't ready for it to happen so early in the season and was glad to discover it wasn't about that at all. It was actually a pleasant Carter episode that's very quiet, but has some little moments of note and a return to stories set on the base or in their homes, one of those strands the series sometimes uses, while also doing the alien planet thing. They really love their alien pillars on this series and the weapon that was so central to the story looked suspiciously similar to other alien devices we've seen before, such as the one where which mesmerised them with light which made them stand around inside the dome for hours not realising how much time had passed. It may not have been seen before, but on a television budget it's often necessary for props and sets to be reused in that way.

The story isn't very exciting and it's not particularly clever, but at least it gives us some time with Sam, seeing into her civilian life a little as they've done with some of the other main characters. Not that we learn much about her, it's purely a visual tour of her house, and I was expecting O'Neill to come up with his offer of a fishing trip again when she admitted she had nothing to do, so that didn't quite ring true, especially as Jack had been sent on leave too. There was something else that didn't make a lot of sense, and that was the disbelief of Sam's colleagues. It's not until the Pentagon gets involved and bugs her house that anyone believes her story of an alien that followed her through the Stargate. How many times has this kind of thing happened, that one person experiences something which the others don't, but for the benefit of creating some tension or making the character solve their problem alone, the others simply don't believe it? It doesn't make any sense. I understand that Jack was headed to the loo, but it was still a bit hard to accept that he'd act that way. I did buy Dr. Fraiser's explanation of why Sam blacked out, because she references several events that Sam's brain has been through and I agree, it would take a toll. Maybe they should have played with that a bit more, but I suppose mental health wasn't the kind of issue covered by this series generally.

As much as I was intrigued by the scenes with Orlan (and I felt the initial strangeness of the alien swooping about as a disembodied POV was well done and created a bit of atmosphere), I didn't really see where it could go, so when he eventually died and then sacrificed himself to save Sam it wasn't as affecting as it could have been. It felt very much like a one-shot alien of the week that needed to be dealt with. Sam was never going to live with this alien guy hanging around her house even if he did turn himself human, although perhaps they should have tried something like that for a few episodes. It would have been much more sensible for him to ask her first before committing to human form. There are some magical moments with a sensitively performed score as he tells her about himself, and there's a touch of humour at other times in the way he talks or stands (or the way Carter walks round her house eyeing up the security cameras that are watching her), but there was no future in him being there.

He was likeable enough and I appreciated that he was of the same race as the Mother Nature creature (I can't remember her name!), which gives us a little more detail on them, and it was very cool to have a mini Stargate in your basement - mind you she's got such a huge basement it would be pretty cool to just have the basement! But how did he make the 'gate? How did he make the emerald? Through alien 'magic' we're supposed to assume, I suppose. It's a bit farfetched and they try and get away with it by having him say it will only work once, but even so, if the Pentagon had the list of ingredients as they did they might be able to recreate one of their own. They also get around explaining it too much by saying he 'mostly' used Earth materials so there must have been a vital component that only he had access too.

The big thing of the episode is Q's first appearance, or Pentagon Man, whatever his name was: John De Lancie, joining the roster of former Trek actors to show up and cementing the idea that 'old Trek actors never die, they just appear on 'Stargate.'' He seems to be set up as the next Mayborn, a troublemaker who puts his department's desires above any SGC qualms. I remembered him being in the series (mainly for his last appearance), but I didn't recall much of this episode. I think the only bit that jumped out at me was when Jack and Teal'c show up at Carter's place with pizza and a video of 'Star Wars' - yes, we were still using videos in those days, can you believe it? It wasn't until about 2002 that videos began to be phased out and DVDs began to come down from their lofty £19.99 price tag. It's great fun to imagine Teal'c watching 'Star Wars' (nine times!), and is a really crazy universe thing where they're in a sci-fi series talking about how Jack doesn't like sci-fi!

As much fun as it is, and as crisp and beautifully as it's shot, it didn't quite do it for me. They were going for a bit of romance I suppose, which didn't really work, and at the same time the story of an alien popping up on Earth to experience humanity for a bit is hardly the most inventive idea. It didn't go anywhere different and so even though it's a comfortable episode to watch, it doesn't go beyond that to get somewhere interesting or exciting, unlike the Teal'c episode that preceded this.

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