Morpheus

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S10 (Morpheus)

I saw what they were trying to do, but for much of this episode I wasn't quite getting into it. I didn't know if it was just me needing time to immerse back into that world before it clicked again, or whether this was going to be a typically weak final season of a long-running sci-fi series, as so often happens with the genre (and probably with non-genre fare, too). The jury is still to hear all the evidence on the latter point, but I'm pleased to say I did mostly come around to the series' style and characters again. There are two specific plots happening, the main being a mission to go somewhere to get something and encountering a problem. That could describe the majority of 'SG-1' stories, I'm sure, but the problem was that I wasn't keeping up with everything. I remembered the deal about King Arthur and his Knights, etc, a thread running through Season 9, but I didn't actually know what it meant and why King Arthur would be gallivanting round the galaxy, visiting planets, nor how. I still can't remember what it was all about, but once that was no longer the driving force of the narrative, and it became a standard survival tale, I was able to sink into it better. The B-story, all about Vala's misunderstanding of a psych evaluation, was more comedic in nature, but eventually came around to something a little more meaningful. Trouble is, I'm not sure if I actually like her. I can't remember if I liked her before, or if it was just the vague connection I had with 'Farscape' in which she costarred with Ben Browder, that interested me, but she's a little anarchic, for all her good qualities.

All the way through this episode I wanted her not to be trusted and to be locked away, and I'm sure that's not what the writers intended - they created her to be a sympathetic character, but one who's a little more off the leash than your usual SGC team member. But she can't be trusted, that's been established so often, and one early indication that they were finding the characters again after writing themselves out of the corner they'd painted into with the premiere episode of the season, always necessarily a reaction to the cliffhanger of a previous season, was the chat between Daniel and General Landry. Jackson wants Vala along on the mission, Landry can't allow it, but at Daniel's request, despite all he's gone through with Vala, Landry is willing to set the wheels in motion for her to come aboard the organisation. I don't remember hearing her actually keen to join the Stargate program, but if she's going to be a regular it would be difficult for her to be there on an ongoing basis without being certified for duty. It's a bit like Starfleet, you can't let just anyone in, there has to be a high level of professionalism and ability. Vala certainly has abilities, as shown by her dedication to passing what she considers a trick test in the psych evaluation by swotting up on psychology terminology, but whether she can be professional is an entirely different question. It's whether her contribution can be worth the imbalance.

It's quite fun to see her take what should be a spontaneous and honest examination of her psyche, so seriously, and I'm glad it wasn't that she passed by tricking the examiner or wearing him down - she's at her most honest when she gets into a strop and says she's reminded why she doesn't belong here, eventually turning into outright demands to leave. The real trickery with Wolsey was intelligent use of the character and I certainly believed in him as a potential spymaster, thinking this could well be a plot running through the season that Vala reports back to him. At the same time this is 'SG-1,' it wasn't going to be that likely they'd have double agent business going on, the characters are much too light for that kind of angst and texture, and I was wondering how Wolsey could be free to wander the base and speak to who he would without question, so I was glad it was revealed to be all part of the test (reminded me of a great old 'TNG' episode called 'Coming of Age' also about a character coming up against a psych test - it's fertile ground to explore). I also appreciated that Mitchell didn't simply slap an SG-1 patch on her and welcome her to the team, she's on probation and he let her know that. She needs to behave. When it all ends with them walking away with Vala asking about the loot they're going to get from the planets they visit, things looked up for the series and it's just a fun, positive way to finish on.

The main story also developed reasonably well. They go to this planet, the 'gate address which Daniel found by researching in an ancient book which had an illustration of some sword of Arthur's or Merlin's, one or the other, and upon it are the Stargate symbols. I was thinking it might be wise to flick through all the illustrations in these old books just in case there are any more symbols like that, just in case! It's not really about any of that (and indeed, it all leads to Daniel suggesting that whatever it was they were after might be in the Atlantis database, which hopefully will lead to some kind of crossover event - if they're going to do it they need to do it soon!), as it becomes a high concept story of needing to stay awake to stay alive. I was thinking as I watched that the actors probably didn't have to act that hard when they're playing tired, as even though they were only on the second episode of the season, for some of them it's their tenth season in a row, and the acting day is a long one. Disappointed Mitchell succumbed and lay in the cave, but of course if it's any physical endeavour that's needed, Teal'c's the man to attempt it, carrying the required lizard, with its immunity, to the surface. The CGI creature was actually very good, moving realistically, filmed like a real animal (and maybe that shot when it scurried along the cave floor, right into Teal'c's waiting bag, was a real lizard - if you're not sure whether what you're watching is real or not, they've succeeded).

The set of the ghostly village, the team walking through the gloom, was carried off well (though it does look like the standard medieval set that they keep using now), as was the descent into the caves (and they found the weariest looking guest actor to play the role of the doctor!), but I felt the story would have benefitted from getting into the action as early as possible instead of all the chatting back at Stargate Command. It led to the episode having to be curtailed rather too quickly at the end with another team showing up in haz-mat suits when it really would have benefitted from SG-1 carrying out the solution. When Carter and Daniel are sealed into isolation pods I thought it was going badly because the team hadn't listened to what Carter was trying to tell them about not falling asleep, and maybe this was actually going to almost kill them until Teal'c could make them understand, but then we're suddenly back at base and everyone's fine, and it was a little too easily resolved due only to the lack of time left. That's really the main point that let the side down, coupled with not giving enough time to the creepiness of village and cave - as well shot as it was we didn't linger long enough in places to build up suspense, and though the nasty brain bug was a hideously distressing proposition, it didn't have time to make the horror more pronounced in the way that last season's episode, 'The Scourge,' about escaping bugs on a planet, did. While it didn't quite win home in the end, the episode does bode well for the season now we've got back to recognisable SG-1 adventure, even if the title made me think it was a repeat of one they'd already done (except that was 'Moebius').

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