Talion

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S10 (Talion)

I don't quite know how I feel about this one. I've been complaining about Teal'c not getting anything significant to do and that recent episodes are too lighthearted and comical, yet here I find myself watching the exact kind of episode I wanted and I didn't entirely enjoy it. Partly it comes from my concern that Teal'c is going to be killed off at some point, either in these last few episodes, or in the series finale, or in the spinoff films, basing that solely on the fact he's the only one of the four original 'SG-1' characters not to appear or be mentioned in 'Stargate Universe.' Since he's always been so caught up in Jaffa issues I hoped it just meant he left Earth to be with them, and I still think that's the most likely, but the directorial choices and the extreme brutality remind me that this is 'SG-1 made in a different era to when it began (although saying that, it started out very brutal and toned it down!), a time when such 'heroes' as the guy out of '24' (never seen it, just heard), and other rough and tumble antiheroes who crossed the line and did whatever was necessary so they could prevent a greater evil, were becoming more and more common. So it doesn't please me to see Teal'c turned into a man out for revenge at all costs, especially his own life. Bra'tac too, looked to be a potential target for the executioner's axe (though I can't actually remember if he ever showed up in 'SGU'), so I was concerned for both of them.

The other issue was that it took so long for them to get to the nub of the story. First I had déjà vu when we see Teal'c and Bra'tac lying half-dead on the ground after what looked like a battle, as that's definitely happened before, and I wondered if it signified another one of those stories that takes place within the barely cognisant consciousness of a dying man. Then it becomes all about this Arkad, or 'our cad' as I dubbed him, a completely unheard of figure who's said to be this great rival from the time Teal'c was First Prime of Apophis (would it have hurt to throw in a few flashbacks, maybe bring Apophis back in for old time's sake like they used to do once in a while?), and is now a great threat because he commands a large swathe of Jaffa who have signed on with The Ori. It would seem a little late in the day to be introducing a new enemy, so I suppose it was a relief he was done away with by episode's end, but had he been the culmination of many seasons of backstory and now, finally, Teal'c and he meet in personal combat… well, it would have had more weight to it.

Talking of weight, I didn't think Teal'c looked weak and fragile at all, more like he was carrying a bit too much, but they did find the biggest lunk of an opponent for him to fight. And I'm not saying it was a bad fight, perhaps it's just that my tastes have changed slightly as I've got older and I no longer find such vicious pummelling to be fun to watch. But I felt the same way about Teal'c dealing easily with Mitchell - okay, it's the sort of thing you wonder about: how good a fighter is Cameron when he's up against a warrior of Teal'c's class, and he doesn't do very well. It's just that there was an edge of nastiness to it all. SG-1 are going behind Teal'c's back, ordered to bring him in after he's gone rogue to track down this Arkad. Surely you'd send in people that had different skills. Maybe get the Asgard involved and beam Teal'c out of there, because he's going to know every SGC trick there is, having served as one of them for so long. I feel like this has happened before, Teal'c going rogue and having to be opposed by his friends. But then again, the series had been around so long, most things had happened before! That was where the drama lay, SG-1 against their better judgement having to capture their friend, but too much time was taken up with bluster and blinds - Arkad pops round to Earth to say he's come to warn them because he's against Earth being attacked. Riiiiight… They don't believe him, and he's not very plausible, so why have those scenes?

I also found the story to be a little confusing, from the way the guy with the facial scar was filmed in such a significant way I thought he was Arkad, and maybe this other guy was a decoy, so when Teal'c murders him by torture followed by sticking an explosive in his symbiont pouch, that seemed to be the end of it, but of course he was just some lackey. The episode seemed to be a bit of a roundabout journey and as much as it's good to see Teal'c taking on the legions of enemies himself, his dour face and foolhardy tactics, not to mention merciless violence, were hard to stomach. Yes, this is Teal'c, this is who he is and the way he would behave, and Bra'tac is there at the end to say he's like the son he never had, so it has a happy ending, but it just wasn't a very satisfying story and I wished Bra'tac and Teal'c had gone off together, anything but to just have Teal'c marching alone. I never heard the name or word 'Talion' mentioned, so I didn't get the title, and I always baulk at alien words for episode titles because it's lazy. It could have been a good mystery, maybe a cool mission to capture an enemy, but instead it's just Jason Bourne on a revenge spree - and Teal'c even admitted at the end that he'd already killed the traitor who murdered his Mother, so he didn't even know Arkad had done that, and the guy could have been goading him when he said he had. The thing is, with so few episodes left, I want every one to be a corker, to delve deeply into the mythos, or to finish up any hanging threads, so in another season I might have been more generous to this one. But not much more because it was still pretty grim.

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