Citizen Joe

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Citizen Joe)

Where to start? It's about as wacky and crazy as the series gets, and it's gotten pretty wacky and definitely crazy in its time, but I don't know the background, whether it was an event episode, like a big round number, as in the case with the 'Wormhole X-Treme!' episode, or whether it was simply an ingenious way to save money and poke fun at the series itself between pretty heavy, serious episodes (not that I remember the final two episodes, but they're ending the season so they're bound to be big and important). The series has always shown a wry sense of humour and understanding of the ins and outs of science fiction and the world it exists in, but this takes things far further than the usual jokes about 'Star Trek' or 'Star Wars,' going deep dive on many references to events, episodes, situations and characters from throughout the series. I know I couldn't keep track of them all, and it must be a real treasure trove of fun to someone as well-versed in the 'gate mythology as Joe Spencer, the barber, became in the story. But that's it, I think: it's a commentary not just on the series, where it's come from and summing it up as it headed towards a ninth season, but an examination, perhaps even a warning to the hardcore fans who treat it as an obsession. It ends happily, with O'Neill sitting down with Joe's estranged wife to explain that what he saw was true, all true, so it's a positive conclusion in that regard, but it could easily be taken as a bit of an indictment of taking any TV series too seriously that it takes over your life.

Which is true. So they had their fun pointing out some truths about fandom, and they had their in-jokes about the series and its history, and they did it all on what is traditionally (to me, at least), a poor substitute for a proper episode: the dreaded clips episode. If only a series could write in this fun, self-referential way consistently on a low budget (a few guest stars, some real world sets, nothing alien, nothing fancy), then they'd be onto a winner from a budgetary perspective. But the truth is you can only attempt something like this episode when you've built up not just a loyal following, but a deep and complicated mythology (I'd suggest it's more complicated than complex, contrary to Joe's insistence!), and this late in a series' run, when you've done many, many episodes, you've earned the right to play with the concept. As I mentioned before, they'd already broken the fourth wall before, with such episodes as 'Wormhole X-Treme!,' but this was a different proposition. I had thought this was a sequel to that episode, probably because this one features that ripoff 'real world' series, and the main characters of both episodes were bald and a little mad, so it was odd to find it had nothing to do with the alien guy and the TV show he 'made up.'

Joe Spencer is the viewer, taken to extremes, and it's just huge party times to see him discover the series and basically watch the whole thing through the Ancients' stone. Perhaps the worst moment for his 'fandom' is when we see him slouched in a comfy chair, his ready meal staining his vest, binging on the stones' stories to the exclusion of all else: what began as a fun diversion became an all-encompassing passion and from an escape from the real world to an exclusion of it, something many serious viewers of sci-fi can probably relate to, but taken to extreme levels. What's really great about the story is that he gets to find out what he knew was the truth: it's real, all real! Having him meet his heroes (and ours), is like being in the episode. You can imagine that this is how you would react if you met those characters and entered their world, congratulatory for all they'd done, but with insider knowledge as if you knew them (didn't Teal'c used to be more gold?), and it's a beautiful gift to regular viewers that have stuck with such a long-running series across many years. I was also pleased that the stone itself had an explanation rather than being 'left to the imagination,' something that does sometimes work, but in this case you want a basis for how it could all have come about. That O'Neill had been experiencing Joe's life for the entirety of his mission with the SGC just slots perfectly into place and is a believable retcon for his character, being a bit of an accepting type when it comes to odd phenomena he can't explain, as well as being hilariously ridiculous.

The clips themselves aren't overbearing, they're little and not too often, just enough to act as reminders to good times (and bad), that we've experienced vicariously through the characters, as has Joe, and also allows the series to critique itself, championing some episodes and slating others ('Seth' and 'Hathor' weren't the series at its best, one guy says), which just makes you love it even more. Just as 'These Are The Voyages…' the final episode of 'Enterprise,' was described as a 'love letter to the fans' (regardless of any controversy over it - I'm firmly in the two thumbs up camp), this is just so, and the series had still two seasons, two episodes and two spinoff TV shows to follow (as well as two TV films - everything seems to come in twos from here on out, maybe it's something to do with the stones… because there were two of them… and… I need to go and have a lie down in a dark room now).

It could probably act almost as good as a primer for those not in the know, an introduction to the series, touching on many of its most important and moving moments, although much of it would still fly over the heads of the uninitiated. But that's what it is, a lovely tale for the initiated to fully understand and they deserved to save every penny they could, because for once this clips show was well worth it. You could even say they predicted binge viewing, since this came out long before streaming of entire TV series' and smashing through a season in a sitting. It's a stretch, but that's how I'm going to look at it. One of the series' best, despite not featuring the main cast that much (perhaps the team camaraderie just isn't what it was in the early years, as Joe's wife puts it!), and a wonderful piece of TV, let alone for the series. Not sure the leak of classified information to save a marriage was justified, but that's O'Neill for you, and the irreverent writers that know not to take their work too seriously!

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