Metamorphosis

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S6 (Metamorphosis)

Blame it on the Russians. If they hadn't gone to that planet and brought back Alebran, SG-1 would never have got mixed up with Nirrti again. It's interesting to see that the Russian team is a reality now. It may have been mentioned before, but I don't recall it being so definite that foreign teams were actually going off world. Maybe it's just not been mentioned recently? It makes you wonder why there aren't teams from America's allies around the world. Like a UK team, for instance. We English are being overlooked! I suppose it's down to the Russians being in on the secret, having had their own Stargate for a while, I'm not even sure if other nations have been told about the 'gate. Typical America! A shame the Russians were portrayed as weak and useless. Compassionate, yes, since Colonel Evanov brings the infected Alebran back to the SGC, in breach of protocol: you can't bring aliens back home with you without permission! But it was also the fact that he and his team seemed to mainly stand by as SG-1 took out all the Goa'uld, as if they weren't any good at fighting. And then, when poor Evanov is suffering and about to explode into water, nothing is done, they let him slop in silence, yet when Carter's the one threatening to explode in a pool of liquid all the stops are pulled out - it's like no one really cares that Evanov died, confirmation that the Russians were expendable and looked down on by O'Neill.

Granted, having the Russians on his team could make for another entry into my anti-bucket list that I've been collating over this season, especially as cooperation with them in the past hasn't made for the smoothest of missions, but they could have at least pretended to be more than bothered that Evanov now needed to be mopped up! Quite apart from the fact that the authorities wouldn't be too pleased, and would probably accuse O'Neill of putting his own people first. Which he did. Actually seeing Alebran gush away in front of my eyes was quite repulsive, but it was only setting the tone for the episode, in which we meet various unfortunate specimens that have been worked on by Nirrti in order to try and create a Hok'tar, or superior human, so she can use this knowledge to gain power. Why are these Goa'uld so old-fashioned? It was nice, in a way, to go back to something from the past, but the System Lords seem to have slipped into the background in the last season or so. Still, this is another one down since Wodan broke Nirrti's neck, so presumably that's the last of her, unless her symbiont can heal her…

The story is a bit tired and stereotypical, the usual sci-fi lines of old, mutated creatures that speak English with good pronunciation ("No, it is you who have made the mistake," that sort of thing). The afflicted reminded me of a cross between the Malon and Vidiians of 'Voyager,' and weren't a pleasure to watch. One of the few points of interest was that Jonas says he's human, his people have just lived on a different planet for a few thousand years, whereas I always thought he was fully alien - admittedly, Nirrti does mysteriously hint that he's more alien than he thinks after living on that planet, but it was worth noting. Not quite so worth noting was the terrible security of Stargate Command: the Russians shouldn't have brought Alebran with them, true, but when they do, everyone just stands around questioning instead of hurrying to check for contamination or, as they do later, a bomb! I like that Cassandra was referenced, but that experience should have made them especially careful for such threats as bombs inside people, and it's a good job that in this case all they had to worry about was damp flooring.

I actually thought we'd already had an episode with this title back in an early season when Teal'c turned into a creature, but checking back that was 'Bane.' I think what lessens this story is that it is just sci-fi by numbers. It's got some fine effects with the swirly DNA in the machine, and stopping a bullet with thought, but for all that, it consists mainly of the team hanging out in a cell, waiting to be used, until O'Neill can talk round their captors into seeing what bad news Nirrti is. It's not like he even uses some clever speech or the force of logic, he just tells them to look into her mind, and in the end they do. The questions of genetic manipulation could have been explored instead of the cheapness of having monster faces to deal with (we aren't even given the satisfaction of seeing what Wodan looked like after returning to normal, since the episode cuts just after he's stepped into the machine), and little else, so with all the empty talk and waiting around this definitely comes across as filler.

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