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DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Icon)

'It wasn't our fault,' says Daniel Jackson at the end, and from one perspective he's right: they couldn't have known that visiting this particular planet (home to three factions: the main body, the Rand Protectorate, the opposing forces in cold war of the Caledonian Federation, and a group of religious zealots that cling on to the ancient beliefs of the Goa'uld as returning gods that will one day do just that), would result in the apocalyptic warhead war that devastated the planet and changed it forever. I'm sure they would like to go to each new planet and have a happy ending, to see change only in the positive sense of enlightening the ex-human populations as to their place in the galaxy, their true home, and the history of the race that enslaved and brought their ancestors to wherever it is they live now. But things don't often happen that way, and it's probably not helped by the fact that a planet's stability and safety isn't the number one goal of the missions: that is to find technology, and possibly allies, to improve Earth's defences against the Goa'uld (and anyone else out there). It's a very American thing to do, and plays out with a very American attitude (no surprise as it's an American TV show!), and although at least fifty percent of the main cast (Daniel and Sam), tend to be more pragmatic and sympathetic to other races' needs, at heart it is a military search and recover operation, in general.

In the SGC's defence, there isn't a lot they did wrong here, it's just their existence that sparks off this world's problems, giving Soren, leader of the religious group, just the proof he needed of the old beliefs to swell interest and sentiment so that he took up arms against the legitimate powers. It was the Caledonians who actually began the war with the launch of warheads designed to take out the Rand's missile complexes, Soren retaliates, and then every city is wiped out. There's not a bad approximation of the damage, but it is slim and far between, mostly the episode takes place in the environs of an attractive country house where Daniel convalesces and becomes attached to a high-up officer's wife. As usual, there's not a lot of depth to what happens, so although Kane is a bit peeved about his wife and Daniel becoming close, it was he who ordered her to look after him, and he never really shows much unrestraint, except in the needless killing of a potentially surrendering Soren - it's unclear if he was actually going to surrender and live to fight another day as he never dropped the gun as he was ordered to, and there would have been no condemnation of Kane if he'd fired on the man had he turned the gun on them. But he didn't give him time to do that and you can see the disgust in Daniel's face.

For the first proper off-world adventure under General O'Neill's command, he does quite well. His usual indistinct and vague command style remains, warning Daniel to get off the planet if things become 'squirly,' but when he announces it's time he talked to Soren, who's taken control of the main political bunker and the 'gate, we think as Sam does from the look on her face, that it's probably not the best course of action to inflame the situation further with a dose of the General's unique approach to diplomacy. But he must have been in a good mood because he actually remains diplomatic and it's up to Teal'c to provide the bite in their discussion with Soren. It's still a bit sad that he isn't one of the team when they first visit the planet (seems very unlikely that this Stargate, which has become a museum piece, would still work - where does the power come from, where was the DHD, etc?), but on the other hand it might make first contact scenarios a little less problematic without that traditional casual non-diplomacy that he always used to display, and Colonel Carter is more than capable of being in those shoes, though she doesn't have the same ruthless or decisive streak that O'Neill had in command. I'm surprised they still haven't been assigned a fourth team member as you'd think exceptions wouldn't be made, but I can see why from a TV perspective as it would essentially be a new cast member and they don't necessarily want to do that again - they should have brought back Jonas Quinn, he'd have been a good choice.

It's no good, the SGC really needs to develop some kind of… directive - call it The Prime Directive and make it about not interfering. It's a lot trickier to invoke the famous 'Star Trek' order, since in that universe you can just beam down, observe the inhabitants from space or if nothing else, go into all-out espionage mode, whereas the SG-1 team can only learn from going through the 'gate, and by that time it's often too late to alter first impressions or make a reasonable choice on whether to proceed. We've seen this play out many times (Carter even says something to that effect), I think the most obvious one might have been Jonas' people, or maybe it was another race that had a planet divided and knowledge of its place in the universe, courtesy of SG-1, didn't make things better, but worse. The point is, by now they should be ready with contingency plans, options for divided worlds to take when dealing with them or simply refuse to deal unless all parties agree, which is hard enough as it is. Maybe it's time for DSG-1? That's Diplomacy Stargate Team 1, a group of trained diplomats that realise that gunplay and soldierly tactics may have been fine for the initial years of the Stargate Programme when things were unclear and they were taking baby steps, but now that it's established it needs more complex methods to secure that which will save our planet. There you go, that's a new series, and it could be just as compelling as the more simplistic, action-based series it was based on…

The action is reasonable (though the only moment that really means anything is when we see the chilling screen graphics of missiles being launched, helpless to stop the horror), and I like the country house, though Daniel's scene with the wife do drag a bit. As usual, he's the one that wants to do everything he can to help, although the main objective has to be to get him back through the 'gate, and it could equally mean that his superiors shut it down and refuse to treat with the planet after all that had happened. I also felt that some of the shooting scenes in the bunker didn't look right, like a cheap soundstage production - maybe they had started filming in digital or some technical alteration had occurred, but whatever it was, things didn't look good, and I know they can pull off some dramatic and well-paced battle scenes as they did in the finale of Season 7. Taking everything into consideration it's very much a mediocre episode that doesn't go anywhere or have any relevance except to remind us of how the characters generally act in these situations. It's nice from a sentimental perspective because we're seeing what could easily have been from any season, old or new, but the approach is exactly the same and it's looking tired because of it. And the same reason those episodes were adequate viewing experiences holds true here: because of the main characters. Sadly, despite the jumping around in the narrative as Daniel recalls what happened, and the interesting notion that this particular event was spread over three months, we don't get much of the characters together. And that's what I want to see.

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