Lifeboat

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S7 (Lifeboat)

A comfortable episode to watch in the same way that 'TNG' is kind of cosy and gentle to watch, nothing surprising, nothing jolting, just a pleasant way to while away some time. A little flat in story terms, though an excuse for Michael Shanks to have some fun. I wouldn't say it was a showcase performance, as it's difficult to shift between personalities realistically without it sometimes coming out as hammy, but he certainly did a good job, especially as the young boy which he absolutely nailed. In fact I wouldn't say there was anything wrong with his performance at all, it's just that he wasn't given much juicy stuff to go at and I'd already seen the superior Brent Spiner and Jeri Ryan do exactly the same thing (in 'Masks' and 'Infinite Regress'), not to mention a masterful example by Patrick Stewart in 'Sarek.' It's a shame to be comparing the series to 'Star Trek' again, but the two franchises are just so similar in tone and style that I can't help it. As I said, it was a nice experience, not boring, just predictable and a little slow and steady, with about the only surprise being that Dr. Fraiser actually lost her cool at one point, which she's always so good at keeping.

I didn't quite understand the resolution, either - they got a new power source for the crashed ship which would wake up all the passengers? Or was it just those that had not been transferred into Daniel and Ferren? Ferren seemed so sad about it that I wondered if he was condemning his son to death (in which case the episode may as well have been called 'Deathboat,' as it would be ironic if the only people that didn't make it were the ones Ferren tried to save by putting them in Daniel), but if they're all living in his mind then surely that's fine, although it wouldn't be much of a life. 'Better than the alternative' was the message, and if there was a theme it could be said to be the idea of living beyond natural life, whether that be defeating old age or coming back from a fatal accident. I'm not sure what side of the message was preferred, whether they were for extending life at all costs or not (the SG-1 team didn't find it acceptable to have other consciousnesses transferred into them, so I suppose not), but it was as close to some kind of commentary or purpose in the story that I could locate. It is a good idea, whenever the cast of a sci-fi series are called to play other characters or variations of themselves, and it's not something 'SG-1' has ever shied away from. I was expecting all four of the cast to be exhibiting the same tendency towards multiple personalities as Daniel, and I don't think their role was essential when they didn't. It was nice to see Teal'c and Jack taking turns sitting with Daniel behind the two-way mirror for friendship's sake, and Carter was necessary to come up with a way to save the people, but none of them really featured that much in terms of moving the story along.

It wasn't made clear what Siler was doing in the Infirmary with a bleeding nose, but I think it would be safe to infer that the haughty sovereign personality in Daniel had attacked him, since he was shown to be violent and it's always Siler that gets the knocks (helped by the fact that Dan Shea who played him was also Stunt Coordinator!). I was also imagining how Teal'c must have got SG-1 back to the 'gate, which Fraiser said he did before her team of medics took them home - I can just see Teal'c trudging back and forth each time with one of the team slung over his back! There were some touching moments as Ferren's son talked to either Janet or Ferren, but it was another episode I didn't like as much as I did when I originally saw it, and probably for the same reason I mentioned in my last review: that back then I wasn't very interested in the ongoing story-lines and preferred the standalone episodes, but now, watching it all in order from the start I like the continuing stories, and as much as this was a reasonable sci-fi story I've seen it done better. James Parks was a recognisable face to me, having been in both 'Voyager' and 'Enterprise.'

**