Evolution Part 2

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S7 (Evolution Part 2)

For a moment there I thought this might be a three-parter, as things looked bleak: many more 'Kull Warriors,' as Anubis calls them, than they had anticipated, but of course the story goes on without needing to be a multi-parter. I also thought this might turn into an Earth-bound adventure, as O'Neill must go off to rescue Daniel and Dr. Lee (who has a rough time of it, though Jackson did the heroic thing and led the kidnappers away from the exhausted doc - I'll bet he starts going to the gym after this experience!). And on the other side of the story, Carter's in charge of a mission to infiltrate Anubis' base using her Dad, Jacob, to sneak in under the captured warrior's armour. What happened to the warrior, did it die? No mention of it at all. It didn't make a lot of sense, and I was expecting Thoth, the chief Goa'uld, to ask him "aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper," but apparently one size fits all, and no one notices that Jacob's a rather diminutive example of the creatures. Fortunately they're rarely expected to speak (except to praise Anubis), so that didn't give him away, but you'd think sensors would immediately show that it wasn't the kind of being supposed to be inhabiting the suit. Mind you, they wouldn't have expected anyone to take it alive, and their overconfidence has always been their downfall.

Talking of overconfidence, O'Neill has to deal with an old 'buddy' from his past who's almost as irritating as Mayborn. I'm still not sure which story to believe about the guy, but I can give him the benefit of the doubt that it really was his last story about their mutual friend turning on him, and working for a warlord, especially as he blasts the shooter who's about to take out Jack and Daniel. It's just that this Burke seems so unstable. Not a character I would especially want to see again. The kidnapper whom he defeats keeps coming back from the dead after he's been shot by his boss for dissent, then stored next to the 'Fountain of Youth' artefact all night. That doesn't explain how O'Neill could shoot him full in the chest and he still keeps coming, since when his former kidnapping associates gunned him down after he went mad and started shooting up the camp, he was lying around for a while before he came after them. I can only speculate that each time he was 'killed' it made the ancient device work more strongly to heal him, but I'm sure if O'Neill had kept shooting he would have been stopped in his tracks. But then we wouldn't have had the reconciliation between him and Burke at the end, which was the point of having his character in the first place, rather than any old guide. And at least Daniel showed some intelligence by coming up with a clever way to escape the wooden shack: create a tourniquet around the planks with a boot and some rags, then twist it open!

Carter's mission didn't have such a strong objective, as they just pop in to see what Anubis is up to and there are the usual shenanigans of being discovered and having to run back to their ship. Good job Jacob's got a symbiote to sustain him as it can't be good for the old guy to be dashing around like that. These Kull are so dangerous that they'll even latch onto a fleeing ship and smash their way in, as one does in this case. For some mysterious reason it doesn't shoot Carter on sight, but decides to stride over and give her a blow across what I thought was the face, but she has a broken arm later, so it must have been the arm. Apart from the fact she's a main character and cannot die (although the artefact might have been useful to bring her back if that had happened), there was no reason for it to hold fire. Maybe it just doesn't like shooting women, because it certainly fired all it had at the men! The mission is something of a success as they do find another queen ready to give birth to symbiotes for more of the warriors. These particular symbiotes will be a blank slate without the host queen's memories which will make them tougher, stronger and more fearsome (or some other combination of devastatingly dangerous qualities). This makes me wonder why all symbiotes aren't blank slates so the Goa'uld can be stronger, tougher, etc?

Sergeant Siler's on hand to help Jacob into the warrior's armour, and for once he's not sporting or complaining about an injury! There isn't really anything else to write home about, it's a straightforward story that doesn't build on part one, just continues from where they left off. I'm generally not excited about the real world episodes they sometimes do, and at least the kidnapping story was leavened by the visit to Anubis's base, it just once again shows that these warriors aren't so terrible - if you can sneak in and out of a base where there are thousands, then what's to worry about? There just wasn't enough tension in the air, I never doubted they'd escape, and the time when something really bad could happen, a Kull getting into the ship as they escape, it pulls its punches for no reason. Yes, everything was a happy ending, with even an odd frisson between Carter and O'Neill that appears, again with very little to set it off except perhaps they were worried about each other while each was off on another mission (though Carter seemed more concerned about her Dad at the time, and O'Neill with rescuing Daniel), but if they want to throw that stuff in there again, then fine. I felt it was just another messy episode, as well-shot and acted as it was, with the chase in the jungle a noteworthy action scene, but not a lot more to it than that, and because it's just the uncovering of information, mostly, it ends up feeling unfinished in the story department.

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