Moebius Part 2

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Moebius Part 2)

Now I know why the ending to 'Threads,' a couple of episodes ago felt like the end of the season: it was! The events of these last two episodes essentially don't happen in the true timeline because those from the alternate timeline went back and fixed it. Like a lot of time travel episodes it starts to get a little confusing, and I'm just glad they didn't follow the currently ubiquitous reading of time travel as every action splitting off into another alternate reality as this would be impossible to follow. Although… is this the timeline we'd watched for eight seasons? It's a slim reading upon which to base existence itself, but now there is at least one fish in Jack's pond, and there never was before. I wanted someone to own up to having secretly dropped some coy carp in there when no one was looking, but it works well enough as a gentle chuckle upon which to end the season, and possibly the series. I have no idea if they knew they'd be returning, or whether it was confirmed later, after production had ended, but either way I think this was O'Neill's last episode as a series regular. As for me, this is as far into the series as I ever saw, since the episodes stopped being shown on Channel 4 back in the day, so here on out is a completely new adventure, notwithstanding I can't help but have picked up on details here and there over the years, or even that I'm watching 'Stargate Universe.' But if this is the last time we get to see the original SG-1 team working their magic, then it's a good way for it to bow out.

Or is it? I mean, I like the episode, it's a good, fun slice of entertainment, as usual not to be taken too seriously, with lots to enjoy, but the characters aren't really the characters, but skewed, eccentric versions, and I'd probably rather see the actual team on one last adventure. But still, it is fun to see the excellent actors plying their wares: Amanda Tapping deserves especial praise for her wonderful comic timing, and the quirks and grimaces of her whole body language, as does Michael Shanks, though he's not quite so pronounced as her. Richard Dean Anderson pretty much plays the same guy, which is fine, and what you'd expect from O'Neill really, and finally, Teal'c gets to be part of proceedings at last (complete with skull cap so he doesn't have to shave his painstakingly grown hair!),  when they visit Chulak and try to enlist his aid. I felt they missed an opportunity for something a little deeper here, where they could have shown what eight additional years as First Prime of Apophis might have done to his soul - I would imagine him to be a much embittered, crushed shell of the Teal'c we know, driven inward to become tortured and full of hatred for all the suffering he's seen and become callous to. This is where the writing doesn't always measure up to its potential, and I expect Christopher Judge could have come up with a unique angle if he'd had more input to the story of this one, but it's still good to see him back in the role, although I don't buy he'd have stayed First Prime all that time: either he'd have cracked and mounted a rebellion, or he'd have weakened, and been killed and replaced.

What's really great about this episode are the little nods (or big ones, really), to the series' past, most notably in bringing back Kowalski (or Kawalsky according to his uniform, so maybe I was spelling it wrong all this time!), killed right near the beginning of Season 1. It's the kind of touch that really makes a difference, and it's only a shame he got killed off again instead of living to fight another day - I'd love to have seen that Kawalsky become part of the team in the real timeline, but that wouldn't have been possible, unless the changes in the timeline that gave O'Neill's pond fish, also meant Kawalsky survived, and that would be too big a leap! It's good to see him part of the gang, if only for a short time. We also get a cameo from Apophis himself, complete with a beard (so it must be an alternate timeline!), and what looks like an approximation of the cell in which the team was held captive during the pilot episode, where Teal'c frees them. I'd have loved to have seen the big guy sneaking through the halls carrying all their bags, guns and gear, without being seen, so he could drop it off at the cell - why didn't he let them out when he delivered their stuff? Surely blowing the door open to escape would have alerted every enemy in the vicinity?

We see why The Ancients made their time travel ship that shape: it's just the right size to go through a Stargate! Good thinking, there. The effects of flying over trees or escaping enemy vessels all looks good and the episode in general is a fun ride, but it does lose some of its momentum towards the end when they're fiddling about with the cloaking ability and chattering sci-fi technobabble as if to make up time. It means the end of the episode is rather truncated with the ZPM safe and sound, no apparent changes to the timeline, and a repeat of the fishing pond scene. General Hammond is still in it (in the alternate timeline, as is McKay), there's a little speculation about what their 'real' lives might be like, but this lightly glosses over the themes of substance, but it does so in such an upbeat, happy, innocent way that the series has about it, that you don't mind too much. After watching a lot of 'SGU' I much prefer this original, less 'realistic' version of the franchise to the bickering and handheld cameras all the time of its second spinoff. But what did the episode title mean, I didn't get it? Season 8 hasn't been bad, not particularly impressing, but proving a pleasant jaunt into the world of our friends, and I've generally enjoyed it more than I did originally, now that I watch it in context of seeing every episode before it, and in order. It will be interesting to see how the series changes with new additions next season, as well as 'Atlantis' which I'll have to alternate with. Here's to eight years of fun times: thanks a lot 'Stargate SG-1'!

***