Collateral Damage

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S9 (Collateral Damage)

I kept waiting for another twist at the end as it felt incomplete somehow as if there was something more to come out. The 'Emissary,' leader of the Galarans, just had a dodgy way about him, but of course we're meant to think that and judge by appearances. Except in his case it was such a strong impression of wrongness that I still wonder if there was more to it than a scientist murdering his ex-wife over jealousy (couldn't the Emissary have implanted the anomaly into Mitchell's mind to falsely implicate the scientist, then brainwash that guy and use him as a scapegoat?), and perhaps the Emissary might have collaborated in the murder in some way. It could have been any of the three guest characters, the Emissary or the two scientists who assist SG-1, each one has their points of interest: the Emissary obviously wanted the murdered woman's research to be taken over by the military and to be used as bargaining power with Earth; the scientist who actually did it reminded me of Brent Spiner and might have made a creditable Commander Data, and he was too happy to help; and his colleague was even more genuine and helpful so he automatically comes under suspicion just for that. It's a well-worn story in sci-fi, the use of false memories, done expertly over the years in several Trek series', it feels especially like a 'TNG' or a 'Voyager' episode, but then that's what this series was modelled on, I would say, so you could equally say that it's a very traditional 'SG-1' outing.

It's nice to have the whole team off on a mission in a season that has been consumed by ongoing plots and the overarching theme of the Ori and their religious zealot-like plans for domination of the known galaxy. I wouldn't exactly say it was refreshing to deal with the known factors of 'alien planet of the week,' or even the 'scientists versus military' which are both elements that are bred deep into the DNA of this series. I even felt the computer layout and consoles of the aliens was similar to aliens we've seen before here, but creating a society for the sake of one episode is by nature a slight exercise, not an in-depth study. Looking at the episode as familiar ground does put it at a disadvantage in that SG-1 isn't as well balanced and neatly meshed as it used to be - as much as I like Cameron Mitchell, he doesn't provide the same central position as Jack O'Neill did, and the writing of the team suffered because of that, or perhaps because they've got out of the habit of writing episodes like this. Usually the characters are all off doing things on their own, or in pairs, and we haven't got the true SG-1 spirit back. Teal'c and Daniel appeared largely to show up in the Emissary's office and update him on progress, and while Carter would seem ideally suited to a more science-based, technology-focused story, she's more like emotional support for Mitchell than the girl genius of old.

Maybe it's the trees? I could be missing trees as this was an advanced civilisation rather than the primitive kinds they would often run into. I've never really thought about which alien society provides better stories. I will say this for the use of a common sci-fi plot: it did at least make an attempt to do something slightly different. There have been so many flashback stories, and in this case it seemed like an excuse to show some backstory for the boy Mitchell, seeing his Father turned into a cripple because of an accident, or giving him a chance to confront an unhappy mission where he made friendly fire on refugees because of botched intel - in all those sequences it would have been better dramatically to show the memories all from his perspective rather than having him in the frame, but logistically would likely have been more of a challenge. That's where the episode went with Mitchell coming to terms with a piece of his past and his own Father which made for some appreciated character scenes, but it was this that was hanging towards the end and which the episode returned to, leading me to think there was something coming in the sci-fi twist end of the spectrum, so it was minimally confusing, but more from my own expectations and the tone of the episode.

It can't be bad to add some depth to a character and family members tend to be a catalyst for such introspection or revelation, and it makes sense that they'd build the murder mystery around the new guy - there might have been a twist that he really was guilty, so it showed some promise, and the idea of the guilty party removing his guilt by actually replacing his own memories of the killing he perpetrated so as to be better hidden opens up a whole avenue of possibilities that are too mind-boggling to be properly explored in a single TV episode. 'SG-1' has always been more populist than hard sci-fi and that can make it moderately frustrating when you want more from its ideas than it's capable of giving, but I usually watch the series with casual expectations so I'm not disappointed. But when they do explore something interesting it does make me wonder how much further the idea could have been pushed. I also wonder what the same story would have been like for each of the other characters and if it's not time for one of them to have a more substantial personal story. Mitchell looks rather naive ending up in the situation in the first place and it just shows what lack of discipline can lead to. My only other thought would be to wonder how the Galarans can accept this scientist back to work even with his memory altered so he doesn't know he killed his ex-wife and thinks she died in an accident - if he had the type of personality that could kill once he could be a future threat, but the Emissary only seemed to care about the project he was working on! Maybe Earth should reconsider an alliance with a world that is so morally grey…

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