Fail Safe

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Fail Safe)

I never really liked films about a hunk of space rock on a collision course with Earth, but every space series has to have one, they just always do. The bad thing is that this series never seems to work so well when it's dealing with 'proper' space threats such as getting stranded or doing EVA - those episodes feel a little flat. At one point we see Dr. Jackson having fallen asleep and I empathised with him, he must have been reading the script. To be fair to the episode it does pick up a bit once they get to the asteroid, it's just that the teaser is so unremarkable as to be almost dull and the job of a teaser is to… tease; excite; throw possibilities at you; make you want to hang around - not suggest the episode is going to be very familiar territory and then give you what was expected. I was more surprised that I wasn't surprised, half expecting something special about the asteroid, such as inhabitants that had gone off course, or something. The last remnants of a lost civilisation.

The only last remnants of a lost civilisation are the chosen few from the SGC that get to hightail it out of Earth to 'Alpha Site' where they will rebuild human kind with the best brains and physical specimens - sounds like a James Bond plot. I can see why Hammond wasn't selected for this great honour… Only joking, he chose not to be included and it was necessary to have that scene with Dr. Fraiser asking about his intentions. It's not said aloud, but I got the impression he was like the Captain of a starship, needing to go down with his sinking ship as his fate was tied to it. Stargate Command isn't a ship, but the sentiment was the same and it was nicely played with Major Davis just before he leaves. It was a bit selfish for the US not to tell anyone about the end of the world, even though it could create mass panic it would also give people time to accept their deaths. They could also have evacuated more people (though the excuse is that there's only a limited set of supplies). Humanity may not survive, but Americans will!

I could believe the asteroid wasn't visible at first, but by the time it's passed the fail safe point of the title, the Earth looms large and it couldn't fail to have been noticed. Even more should the gigantic flash, as it goes into hyperspace, have made a visual impact like nothing else, and even if that was explained away because it was on the day side of the planet, it comes out of hyperspace on the night side, which would surely have lit up the entire horizon. And I don't agree with anyone that posits the theory that everyone was asleep! Perhaps we'll hear mention of people knowing about the event in subsequent episodes, you never know, as the episode ended before we could learn of the aftermath of the adventure.

One of the positive sides of the episode is the SG-1 team all getting to go on a mission together in the same room and spending a lot of time with each other, something they haven't done so much this season, or that's what it feels like where they often have split story lines. Not that they were on top form, full of witty banter and sparkling dialogue - they mostly looked a bit tired or worried, which is fair enough when the fate of the world was on their shoulders. The trouble with these real space episodes is that there isn't much tension to be had because we know at any moment another ship can come along and get them out of their predicament. It happened in 'Tangent' last season, and indeed that very episode is referred to (unfortunately another boring one), with the same team that worked on the Death Glider helping kickstart the cargo ship's engines. For one thing it was fortunate that it hadn't been salvaged by the Goa'uld, and for another it's amazing how much more experienced humans have become with the alien technology. But we can gloss over that.

I was expecting the group of engineers or scientists were to play a bigger role from the way Spellman had stuff to do, and a name. I thought he could have become this series' version of Reg Barclay from 'TNG,' but the team is quickly kicked out of the episode once their job is done. Effects-wise the story did create some tension in the approach to the asteroid with a drop through into a deep crater being a high point. But once there they do the same old things you'd expect: meteor showers, loss of internal atmosphere, space walks, and a malfunctioning bomb, even down to the 'tense' defusing sequence! I liked that the origin of the asteroid came to make sense and that it wasn't simply a big rock that happened to be on course for our planet, but was actually a Goa'uld plan to get around the Asgard treaty by making Earth's destruction look like a natural disaster. And I will credit Hammond's scenes with providing some drama in his acceptance of his position, and belief in SG-1. It was a functional episode that featured all the main characters. Its problem was lack of originality and a weak sense of menace, coupled with a slow pace and not much of a script: okay, but we know they can do much better than this.

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