The Quest

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S10 (The Quest)

Five virtues, five puzzles, and a band of questers searching for a legendary item? Yes, this is closer to the 'SG-1' that works, helped by having the team all together and forming a party of adventurers with Baal and Vala's daughter, Ori girl (first disguised as the old man of the village). It's still a bit daft with plot points such as Vala initiating the next stage of the quest by having a dream and rushing in to tell Daniel how to find out where they should go, although that in particular was later explained by the Orici sending this dream to her Mother to get SG-1 on their way because she can't get this thing, whatever it was called. For the most part it's a mix of Indiana Jones and the Mines of Moria from 'The Lord of The Rings,' and the budget was clearly spent on this elaborate cave system and all the extras in their favourite Medieval village set (including the female bar woman who I recognised as Tina Greer's ill-fated Mother from 'Smallville' Season 1's 'X-Ray,' having only watched that episode in the last year or so!). Sometimes it gets it dead right, as in the great sci-fi setup of a maze made out of a time distortion which they can see has trapped a bunch of people who are moving at an exponentially slower rate - I'm pleased to say I thought of the solution as soon as they lost Carter's Game Boy Advance to guide them: it was as simple as throwing sand into the air and where it doesn't fall you'd know the distortion was there. They used stones instead, but that was probably cheaper than showing all the fine particles of sand hovering in the air, so I'll let them off.

The old man turning out to be the Orici in disguise came as a surprise, but I just enjoyed them having some extra people along on the expedition, even if Baal was superfluous. He must have been very bored indeed to still be muttering to himself how he was going to get those servants who had run off leaving him in the trap for three days! I did wonder as soon as they mentioned a dragon guarding this item for which they search, that you can't say something like that and wimp out, so credit that they did at least try to do a passable dragon on a TV CGI budget. But it's clearly going to be a hologram like so much that was in the caves. I can guess a chunk of budget went on bringing that to life, too, though I'd have preferred to see a partially hidden puppet as that might have been more realistic, especially when I have visions of both 'The Lord of The Rings' and the awful 'Hobbit' films in my mind, which they can't compete with on the visuals front. It's one of those stories that would have been better just concentrating on the characters and a good idea - there was a day when that time distortion puzzle would have been the entirety of the episode, and that was enough, but now everything has to be bigger, fate of the galaxy stuff and all that. It's still reassuringly shaky in traditional TV terms, what with the people 'frozen' in time that you can see moving ever so slightly. I always wish they could just lock an image off and not rely on actors having to do pesky stuff such as breathing, which gives the illusion away!

It is good to have them all together working as a team, and it is good to have them messing about in a forest or underground caves as we've seen so often before. Maybe because it was a two-parter is why each virtue has to be worked out and I did respect Daniel for having the faith to walk through the blazing wall of fire. At the same time I'm not sure what it was all about - I know they're trying to locate this little red ball thing, but how it helps against The Ori, I didn't catch. And when the central conflict has faded into the background for me it's hard to really get excited about a series. It's typical Final Season Syndrome: a successful series lasts long enough to outlive its creative powers, not that 'Stargate' was ever one of the greats, but in these last few episodes there have been more misses than hits, and the characters haven't progressed. I don't know, I can't quite put my finger on why it's only partially working, a combination of things such as Vala stealing too much of the limelight, Mitchell not being able to fill the shoes O'Neill left behind (as much as he's a likeable guy), and the three originals just doing the same old, same old as if no time ever passes - I suppose to some degree that's what you want, to keep coming back to this world of SG-1, but the heart seems to have dropped out of it and no amount of effects or sets can rectify that.

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