Bounty

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S10 (Bounty)

I suppose this is the kind of story you'd expect a series to do in the latter part of its run, where they can cut loose, hang free or whatever you want to call it: have fun with the characters is what I mean, and with the concept. I had a cold shudder when I saw the dreaded words 'Excerpt by,' since we've all been scarred by the early seasons' clips shows, but it was a false alarm. I suppose it was fun. Ish. It begins well enough with the team in mid-mission taking out some cargo run of what we eventually learn are Lucian Alliance supplies, but then it seems about to become one of those comedy episodes with Vala as the 'girl out of water,' or is that 'fish from another world.' She accompanies Cam to his High School reunion, meets the parents, is as 'hilariously' inappropriate as usual, and that's about it. In the meantime, Daniel's off researching somewhere for something, Teal'c's with a bunch of Jaffa off-world, and Carter's at a tech conference with Dr. Lee where they're trying to make it look like technology isn't as advanced as it actually is. Yes, it's all a bit messy and not a very clear-cut narrative, but that's where it feels like a late-series experiment. I'm sure they've done similar things before.

The trouble is, there are some big things that happen, either on a personal level or for a large group of people. For example, what about that poor woman that sees the female bounty hunter get squished by a bus when she's about to take Jackson. Why did the bounty hunter not hear the bus coming? Why could the driver not see her? Was there counselling for the poor witness? Then there's the whole group at the reunion who witness Ring Transporters in operation, personal shield tech and lifelike holograms… All we get is a sort of warning from Mitchell at the end to his lost love of High School, telling her she can't speak of it again and nobody would believe her anyway. And then there's the shift in power in the Lucian Alliance, with D'Tan (I think that's the guy's name who rules the roost), failing to keep himself suitably protected and an easy target for that guy. That guy… I'm sure he's the one who ends up on 'Stargate Universe,' which adds a little more respect for me to that series as I saw it before watching these last couple of seasons of 'SG-1' and naturally had no idea who the Lucian Alliance was. So that was a plus point, even if his rise to power was so simplistic.

I suppose (again), that it was somewhat of interest to meet Mitchell's folks and see the town he grew up in, however small a portion of it we did see, and with all those fields and school dances it was like watching 'Smallville' again (another series shot in Canada! - actually, now that I think of it, I think his mate had been in that series). I have to admit to finding Vala less and less funny, and I'm not sure she really bounces off Mitchell that well (despite them practically continuing their own, previous sci-fi series, 'Farscape,' when they're acting alone!), and I keep feeling the other characters are a little lost. What's really happened for Teal'c, Carter and Daniel this year? Last season I thought things were better balanced, with developments of interest, while this time it's been up and down. In the end this particular instalment was a bit of a throwaway one, even if it did set up the Lucian Alliance for the future, and when there are so few episodes left I would hope they'd have planned them out carefully to eke out the best of the series. It's all subjective, of course, others may find this one hilarious and one of the best, perhaps, but I doubt it.

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