Zero Hour

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Zero Hour)

Quite a thoughtful one, really. It examines how General O'Neill is dealing with his role in absolute authority of the SGC, and it turns out that it's not too well. In fact, he's realised that he'd overreached himself, and that the diplomacy and ability to juggle paperwork while sorting out internal problems and worrying about his friends and subordinates doesn't appear to have any upsides. But gradually, like some kind of redemptive blanket, a warmth sweeps through the base and he realises by the end that he can deal with it, and will. And all done in that offbeat, quirky, kind of British embarrassment that the series excels at. It's a bit of a jumble of stories going on in the background, the main one being the three-man (or two-man and one woman… or one-man, one woman and an alien, to be precise…), SG-1 team getting trapped in an old base of Anubis' while Baal, whose servants must have been observing, claims he has them in captivity and wishes to deal them for the asylum-seeking Camulus. Camulus himself, infuriated at being kept prisoner despite his asylum, eventually succumbs and tells them about a device on another planet that he thinks Baal wants. So they retrieve it only to discover (from another side story of an alien plant growing out of control all over the base, and the solution to getting rid of it), that it's actually booby-trapped and would have taken out the entire Solar System had it been plugged into the device in Antarctica. Thanks, Cammy.

It's all happening on O'Neill's watch, and no wonder he's feeling discouraged, not helped by the addition of a new assistant to aid him, sent along by General Hammond (sadly we don't even get a cameo of Don S. Davis' voice on the phone), but whose secret assignment is to report back to the President on O'Neill's suitability for the post he's in before a Presidential visit of the SGC. I thought he was going to be some kind of Kinsey-ite, or follower of one of those shady government organisations, but no, it's just a legitimate investigation into O'Neill's character. And he does fine, probably because Hammond let him in on the secret, and rather than play up and make life a misery for the 'spy,' he just acts normally, which is to say, as Walter does at the start, "He's not like other people." It probably helped that he was writing his resignation letter to Hammond throughout the episode, so he's not going to be too worried about what anybody thinks, even if he did at the best of times. He just does what he does ("It's what I do," he explains, in a mirror of the character based on him in 'Wormhole X-Treme!').

His unique approach to diplomacy shows that he has a fair way to go when it comes to dealing with others not under his command: locking the two Amran delegates in a room for a few days so they're forced to work out their differences did eventually pay off, it seems (though we don't get to see the pay-off, and I was expecting him to suddenly realise that he'd forgotten all about them, dash over to the cell and find them amicably discussing a treaty, whereas it's actually conveyed in dialogue); and as it turns out, antagonising Baal makes no difference either way because he was lying about having SG-1, and it must be better for him to realise that the humans aren't afraid of him than for O'Neill to be polite and submissive. But when it comes to dealing with those under his command he's as strong as ever, not wanting SG-1 to go on recon without some backup, not losing his temper with mad scientist Dr. Lee when you can imagine Hammond almost blowing his top and maybe keeping the scientist under a much tighter leash. But it's the proud moment that Reynolds and the other soldiers meet him to reconfirm their loyalty to his leadership, just when he's at his lowest ebb, doubting himself and his ability to deal with all that's happening (and hatred of paperwork!), it helps to turn things around. I suspect he was also a little bit stubborn, thinking the President had the gall to question his place in the role, albeit secretly.

So I'm glad he came to his senses, and as much as we'd like to see him going off on adventures with his team, that's not how things happen: promotions are awarded, people move on, and at least this way he has a solid background role to play, even if it's not in the same way as he's (and we've), been used to. On the other side, I felt the plant story was a little silly and it was odd to have two consecutive base-based episodes rather than one where they go off to seek out new technology to protect themselves with, as the episode initially appeared. It could easily have been a story about the team being stuck in the temple and overcoming traps, etc. Not that we haven't seen that before, of course, but it was fairly light on the other main cast, though I'm sure the balance will shift away from O'Neill soon and I'll be wishing we had more of him in it. The light tone of the episode was a little jarring at first, considering the apparent capture of SG-1, but the supporting cast did a good job (even if Gary Jones as Walter looked like he was barely keeping from laughing in his scenes with the General). A pleasant episode, in summation, though they could easily have done more with Camulus as I thought a Goa'uld seeking asylum with humans was a ripe storyline to explore. As it turned out they could trust him as much as any other Goa'uld we've seen, so I suppose it was unlikely, but it would have been fascinating to run with it a bit.

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