Insiders

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S10 (Insiders)

Evil villains and their evil plans, lots of recurring characters, and pretty much all based around the concrete walls of Stargate Command - it's some proper retro 'SG-1' for us, then. Baal was never one of the best characters, though he was one of the better Goa'uld black hats, simply because he had a bit more composure than the majority, but it is like a step backward when we go this deep into old mythology. I'm sure if you were a big follower of the franchise back in the day this would have been a torrent of nostalgia for the 'old days' which would garner it a pass, and certainly from a technical standpoint it shows how far motion control technology had improved when we have rooms full of clones (even if occasionally you could spot when they were 'cheating' and just using lookalikes for distance shots), but in the end it's not much more than a mediocre jaunt, killing time, a sort of bottle episode, except for all the technical wizardry of moving shots where we see multiple clones at once, or coming into frame. For some reason Jackson isn't even in it at all, off at Camelot apparently, but maybe they were filming a more Daniel-intensive episode at the same time, one of the ways to curb production costs as usually happens from every angle if a series lasts a long time. Not that his absence particularly hurt the episode (it gives rise to a good observation from Mitchell when Landry talks about Vala only being under control when Daniel's around and he replies that with Carter the same rank as himself, Daniel a civilian and Teal'c an alien he's used to it!), but it doesn't feel as complete.

Instead we're gifted with guests, whether that be appearances from Siler, Lee and Walter, as well as Agent Malcolm Barrett of NID, and of course, the ubiquitous Baal, it all helps to keep the 'SG-1' mood. And I have to say the plan was well worked out with all the clones gathering together creating a signal strong enough from their transponders to be beamed up after stealing the data from O'Neill's encounter with an alien database (the famous image of him getting face-hugged by a contorting wall, which takes me back!), long ago, and which we now learn contains 'gate locations among which the famous Merlin weapon is stashed, Anubis narrowing it down a bit, apparently, and since the addresses given by that Ancient in the previous episode prove to be dead ends for the search. The only snag in the whole plan was Barrett's uncharacteristically stupid, bullheaded decision to storm in and interrogate Baal, taking his gun with him, then getting overpowered. Who would do such an imbecilic thing? Fortunately the team point this anomaly out, suspecting the agent of brainwashing, so that's that out of the way. It doesn't explain why they allowed the clones to be in the same cell, as surely that would likely be part of the plan, if there was one, nor can it bypass how easy it was for SG teams to go on a wild Baal hunt and come back brimming with the clones! Let alone the return to hiding behind thin little trees for cover and taking on gormless Goa'uld that are as useful as nothing much at all, which really does bring back memories, but not very good ones!

So there are some silly flaws - I know we can say that the clones wanted to be captured so they made it easy, but it's an uneven episode. The conclusion was clever, cleverer than most dastardly plans anyway, but it was more of a diversion away from the main story than anything else, and while tying back into the old stories can be a good thing if it leads to more depth in the narrative, this was just too simplistic, soldiers running around, shooting down corridors, and why wouldn't the SGC have the ability to flood anti-Goa'uld gas through the base as part of its security measures, you'd think such a defence would be very useful over the years? That's a conceit of the genre, however, we can't always be forward thinking or the villains would have it too hard and there has to be drama. But I'd have preferred a personal story, maybe Vala experiencing Earth civilian life as Teal'c used to do, some knockabout fun if they have to tread water for a bit. Talking of Teal'c, when did he give up using the staff weapon as it looked strangely out of place for him to be wielding a machine gun. Maybe he always uses guns these days and I hadn't noticed, but it stood out to me on this occasion. It sometimes feels as if time hasn't moved on, because although we've seen major changes such as Teal'c heavily involved in Jaffa politics, Carter being promoted, etc, they still come together and seem like the age-old SG-1 team they always were, minus O'Neill, plus Mitchell and Vala (I keep forgetting the pair of them worked together on 'Farscape,' these characters different enough not to have that connection in mind all the time). I know that's what was wanted, but at the same time it can be hard to take it seriously.

**