Lockdown

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Lockdown)

It's been done before, many times, but it's one of those stories which saves them money and is a reasonable enough runaround on the base, so I won't judge it too harshly. Saying that, base-under-siege plots can be done well and… not so well. It depends on whether we buy into the paranoia and there's enough tension to carry the episode. In this case, it didn't quite work. The only moment a chill runs up the spine came when Daniel reveals that it's not some alien at random haunting the halls of the SGC and possessing its residents, it's none other than Anubis himself, whom, they conjecture, lost the shield that kept his life force or whatever, together, when his fleet was wiped out, and then what remained of him was trapped within a piece of debris orbiting Earth, which he wasn't able to break free from. We'd already witnessed the floating form pass into the International Space Station (a nice attempt at making the series more realistic by adding in real world elements), and it becomes very clear that Anubis can hover through any physical object, even the thick walls of Stargate Command, so he couldn't have been affected by the pull of gravity. I can only assume he could float but slowly through the void, and it would have taken him centuries to get anywhere by propelling himself through space, so the Stargate was a much-needed shortcut to… wherever he wanted to get to. He's a bad guy, so no doubt he has some lair somewhere that holds a backup shield or some such device. They really should have made a note to explore the coordinates he dialled before Carter changed it…

The ending was suitably chilling, the expendable Russian Colonel Vaselov who carried Anubis into the base, is the same man that gets him out, saving General O'Neill's life in the process - were we supposed to really believe he'd shoot O'Neill and himself dead if Anubis didn't leave the General's body and take his? It was a mighty big bluff, since Anubis could easily have fled into some other unfortunate, nearby, and do we even know for certain he had to have a corporeal form to go through the 'gate? Whatever the logic problems, it was still a self-sacrificial act, but it doesn't change the fact that this Russian guy turns up and then gets killed in the space of the episode, and his only real motivation is how much he respects O'Neill and wants to be a part of the programme (or was that Anubis speaking?). It was a good final shot of the trapped Anubis sunk to his knees in the form of the Colonel, frozen in a snowy waste. Cold wouldn't affect a non-corporeal entity, I'm sure, but it stops him from doing anything physical while leaving the door open for them to use Anubis again in future should they wish.

If we're talking frigid we should mention Dr. Brightman, the medic taking over from Dr. Fraiser. I wasn't clear whether she'd been in it before, or whether she'd even taken over, but she's the Doctor, and a series like this needs one, so I'd assume she's to be a recurring role, though they could just as easily have a new one each time they need one. She didn't have the warmth of Fraiser, but I don't know if they deliberately wrote her that way or it was a conscious decision on the part of the actress, or whether she is in fact, just an expendable guest of the week. But she did survive, so we'll see. At least we got Sergeant Siler again, so things don't feel completely new. O'Neill's finds his new position on the base comes with stacks of paperwork, but he still gets his usual offbeat comments in (such as when Carter asks him if he'd noticed anything strange about Daniel and he replies that shooting up the 'gate room was pretty strange!). He seems to have become resigned to the fact that he'll have to get a replacement for SG-1 to go off world, but I thought the reason he took the promotion was that he got to do what he wanted, so why can't he just appoint himself to remain part of the team? For now he leaps on Carter's assertion that there's no rule saying a team has to have four people, but it would be a shame if we didn't get the four of them going off on missions again.

The 'foothold' situation had been done before, as had alien possession, and even though it strains originality a little that it's the same story again, it was more the lack of danger and fear in the episode that prevented it being much of a success. While there was the odd scene that left a warm glow, such as Daniel's reassurance of the Vaselov, who knows he's likely to die, it was mainly people fumbling around waiting for Anubis to make the next move. Was O'Neill really using this situation as an excuse not to make the decision about his replacement, since the base is locked down for several days until the President himself phones up and gives him an ultimatum? Either way, the fact that Anubis could leave at any time and roam the Earth rather dissipated than increased the tension levels. I also felt it was ridiculously poor security to have a self-destruct sequence that can be foiled with a few taps of a keyboard from Carter! You'd think they could have come up with a non-technological solution so that a technical genius wouldn't be able to hack it. And Carter could have been possessed again herself and deactivated it that way if it was so easy. They really need to issue zat guns to every soldier on duty in the base, especially when it's clear that friendlies could be enemies, making death and wounding very likely! The ability to stun would be essential in that scenario. So a little more thought about the story logic and the best way to create drama, was necessary, but it's still nice to spend time in the SG-1 team's presence, even if it's within the dull, grey concrete of the SGC instead of rich, natural landscapes (and lots of trees, gotta have lots of trees!), that is their standard habitat. Not the best start to the season, then, but passable.

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