The Warrior

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (The Warrior)

Not the story I was expecting about a new menace from a new kind of superior warrior - that must come later. Instead this is a dramatic tale of false hope and blind faith, with only the seemingly petty little voice of pragmatism that is O'Neill to shout into the wind of change some of the Jaffa have embraced. Their leader, K'tano, is a charismatic preacher who made me think of Martin Luther King and his famous dream speech, even if the performance was a little over the top. At least they had the numbers of extras to make it work - a smaller number and it would have looked silly. But his rapid rise and fall means a lot happens in just one episode. We go from learning that the Jaffa have a unifying leader who promises action and has big plans, to discovering what kind of leader he is, to O'Neill deciding he's not the sort of guy Earth wants to be supporting, a division between him and Teal'c, the revelation that Yu survived death at the hands of Osiris (those pesky sarcophagi!), to the unmasking of a villain in their midst, and finally a battle to the death followed by a pitiful fleeing of the great Jaffa rebellion. As well as the return of Obi Ndefo as Rak'nor, from last season. How much can you pack into one episode?

If you think about it, it's mostly contained on the planet the Jaffa have chosen to use as a base for anyone that wants to join, the landscape making the episode seem bigger than it really is with the brief excursions away from this stage incidental to the main part of the episode. And it's certainly a stage for some deep feelings to rise. Bra'tac should have known better, but, like Teal'c, his overriding desire for the dream of his people's freedom coming to fruition is enough to blind him to K'tano's irresponsible leadership. As early as we hear about the fact that any Jaffa can join without question, to the moment that is undeniably grand, when K'tano walks down in the middle of a firefight between his men and Nierte's and demands the leader choose between killing him and supporting freedom for all their kind, we can see this is an unbalanced individual. But how much are his own flaws, and how much is down to the different ways the Jaffa react to death, sacrifice and fighting to strict codes, is not clear at first.

This is the biggest cause of the simmering tensions in the episode. What O'Neill sees, because he's highly trained and has met plenty of men of command in his time, is not what Teal'c chooses to see. He thinks his eyes have been opened, everything is going the way he's always wished, and K'tano is the man who can put him back in touch with his roots, his people and their ways. You'd think he wouldn't be so quick to put O'Neill's doubts down to inability to comprehend the Jaffa way, but should know his experience is giving him direction. Sam and Daniel aren't a lot of help in this regard, though they can demonstrate human weapons are more functional than the Jaffa's staffs (a useful comparison, otherwise we might begin to ask why they use 'inferior Earth weapons' rather than alien tech), or interpret what's being said, they mainly stand in the background, watching. The conflict in this one is between O'Neill and Teal'c, who fails to see the cultish nature of his leader.

It's interesting that the story was from Christopher Judge as it puts Teal'c in an unenviable position: that of being wrong. But at least the character finds redemption before the close of the episode. For once he doesn't survive because of his own abilities but because Lord Yu sends him back with a message. I'm not sure why Yu needed to do that since the place was going to come under attack anyway, but it gets Teal'c back to the land of the living, and a staff-off with K'tano in which he proves his warrior's mettle. The action scenes were well done and there were a lot of martial arts, both visually and philosophically. I expect they had a troupe of karate experts in as extras. I'd have liked to see old Bra'tac show the youngsters a thing or two instead of just telling them where they were going wrong, but the fight between Teal'c and K'tano worked, even if it's the same old thing of using the broken weapon when you're down to come under the defence of the final rush of the enemy.

I'd say the episode wasn't exactly original, and it felt quite familiar, especially when the bad guy whispers who he really is before attempting to finish off Teal'c. Totally unnecessary, but these baddies can never deny themselves a chance to gloat - when does it not prove their undoing? I also felt it would have been difficult for K'tano to hide his true Goa'uld identity of Imhotep for long. For that matter, why didn't Carter detect it? Wood for the trees? While the episode was enjoyable, it was all rather predictable at first, and while I enjoyed the training scenes, the weapons, etc, the episode only began to mean something once the personalities began to flare up. It's worrying that someone like Teal'c could fall under the spell so easily, but really it shows how much freedom for his people means to him. The number of times we've had the fight over alien ways compared to Earth ways, you'd think he'd be more willing to listen to Jack.

I'm surprised that Imhotep was such an inept Goa'uld if he had the eloquence to move warriors like that. But once again it comes down to the question of how much it was the Jaffa reacting to hope. I was expecting this to be either a two-parter or something that would run for a while, and though I'm sure it does continue (the Jaffa rebellion has long been in the wings), it was a good twist at the end, and an affecting way to leave the episode, Teal'c distraught, people running in terror, escaping by the smallest margin. Perhaps there were religious elements shown in a negative light (O'Neill, the 'good guy' is asked whether he believes in the afterlife and reward for those that die, though he doesn't get a chance to answer), but it becomes a skewed, cult-like take on such things, eclipsing any stereotypes of true faith. I have to say that, after early reservations I quite enjoyed it, was even drawn into it thanks to the battle between the ways, much more so than the physical battles.

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