Fallen

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S7 (Fallen)

My over-riding feeling is how good it is to get back to this series. It's been too long! And back into the series we go right away, with this first episode of the season launching an assault on Anubis and his new weapon, getting closer to finding Vis Uban, the lost city of The Ancients (the city that is lost TO The Ancients, becomes the city OF the lost, due to the plague, becomes the city MADE lost so others couldn't find it, all in the course of the episode), though more like closer to not knowing, as it's all about them realising they were mistaken about the location Jonas came up with - his logic wasn't bad: look at the 'gate addresses O'Neill was given through his connection with Ancient technology, but instead of assuming they were in a random order, choose the last on the list. Only, as clever as this mental leap was for Jonas, it proves apparently incorrect. Still, a nice try, and good work from writers juggling a continuing story that was necessary to advance, yet also needed to be false so the true search for the lost city can take place in future (I'm still assuming it's going to be connected to 'Stargate Atlantis').

On top of all this heavy plotting, they also had to reintroduce Daniel Jackson back (in his rightful place in the opening credits again!), into the fold, but in a way that didn't continue the super-powerful ascended version, but would make him human again. These TV shows do like to have people naked when they're cast out or thrown down or taken back, or whatever (I think of Odo in 'Broken Link,' Neo waking up in 'The Matrix,' or various 'Terminator' time-travelling, and probably others, too). I suppose it emphasises a character's vulnerability, and represents their complete lack of control or detachment from the past. In Daniel's case he doesn't even remember who he is, much less have any of the abilities or fore-knowledge, or whatever, that made him so mysterious and powerful last season. It's what they had to do, as you can't have an almost omniscient being as a main character on a par with others who are just human (or Jaffa, or… whatever Jonas was). It was only right that Jackson became a commoner again, and it also gives us the strongest part of the episode, as his friends first find him, then he finds himself. The conversations he has with each of his former friends makes up for the short interactions he had in last season's finale, and brings home what he means to them.

I enjoyed this first half of the story more than the action-focused second half, as it gave the characters licence to revel in their roles, to rediscover this group to the audience - even the SGC is nicely reintroduced by Jonas running around it excitedly, bumping into the recurring characters that populate it (looked like Director and Co-Producer Martin Wood he was talking to in the lift!), before taking us up to the Briefing Room. It's a joy to see these people again, and there's even some role reversal, as Jack finds himself explaining all the developments and what they mean, to Daniel, who has no clue, having to talk of things he found hard to swallow initially to the man who originally told him and is now sceptical. As well as being a good way to integrate Dr. Jackson again, it would also serve new viewers that hadn't followed every twist and turn. 'SG-1' was never the most easy series to watch casually, the unique names and words alone enough to fox a channel surfer, and even I, who've followed the series, need a glossary sometimes to remind myself of who, what and where! Although I felt there wasn't a cliffhanger ending last season, there's still a sense of time ticking down as Anubis must be dealt with, and the sooner the better. So we have an infiltration plan to send Jonas and Jackson aboard the master of evil's ship, while Teal'c gets Yu, he who I thought wouldn't be coming back, to rally the remaining System Lords' fleets. Of course, the old guy chooses treachery, although the only real loss is Jonas, captured in an escape attempt after he and Daniel have done what they needed to.

The security of Anubis is poor, where two humans (or whatever Jonas is), can beam up (sorry, 'Ring Transport'), to his ship without alerting anyone! But he's the usual megalomaniacal villain, overconfidence sure to be a weakness. It also seemed relatively easy for Jack and Sam to take the F-302 into the ship's vicinity to take out the weapon, or cause a diversion, but you can't fault the effects work, with a 'Star Wars' trench run almost the order of the day (in hindsight it seems less of a joke that O'Neill wanted to be called Red Leader!). And this episode does end on a cliffhanger, Jonas at the mercy of Anubis' torture chamber (a bit like Jack and Baal last season), about to have one of those spiky mind ball things used on him. If anything, the episode should have been called 'Lost' as that's the theme of it all: Daniel has lost his memory, it seems the lost city is even more lost, and the battle against Anubis, though successful in taking out his weapon, is pretty much lost thanks to Yu, and Jonas is most definitely lost to SG-1. Daniel crawling around in air vents is probably lost, too. I'd love to know the behind the scenes on all this; how the series came to return; why Michael Shanks stepped back aboard; how Corin Nemec felt, and whether he'd only expected one season in the role. Not that he's gone yet!

The trademark humour is in full force with O'Neill (becoming silver-haired, something that Daniel takes note of, or starts to!), relaxed and able to do all his usual stuff, not getting frustrated with Jackson (even when he keeps calling him Jim!), perhaps simply overwhelmed with good feelings having found the friend who had first been dead, then out of reach. I could have done with the whole episode concentrating on Daniel's adjustment to his old life, and that of his friends, of which we do get some touching beginnings (Share's spoken of, as is Charlie, O'Neill's dead son), but this being 'Stargate' people would have expected nothing less than an action-packed mission of some kind, even if it slightly detracts from the human drama. They got the usual trappings of the series in, too, with a race of simple villagers at the location of the planet that isn't the lost city of The Ancients, and the sets there were big and suitably impressive. We also touch base with everyone, even General Hammond getting to stretch his legs on the planet. For those that might have thought new 'gate addresses would start to become thin on the ground, we hear that only a quarter of those from O'Neill's Ancients' download have been investigated, meaning the series could run and run (it did). A promising start to the season.

***