Favorite SG Episodes: The Tok'ra Part 2

And we are back ladies and germs for Part 2 of the exciting conclusion of the Tok'ra. When we last left our SG-1 and SG-11 teams, the threat of a traitor giving away the Tok'ras' position had happened, Sam and her father (General not Colonel) Jacob had made it to the caves so he and Selmak may possibly blend. What in the nine Hells can top all of that??! This is SG-1 Season 2 The Tok'ra Part 2.

Bow down before Sarah Douglas!!!

With O' Neill and Carter back with her father Jacob in tow, the planet is being evacuated. The Tok'ra are prepping to trash their underground tunnels, ring up to their hidden ships or head for the Stargate toot sweet. Mass chaos ensuing, O'Neil, Jackson, Teal'C and SG-11 assist in evacuations and even prep for cover fire and assault on the impending Goa'uld forces on their way for their standard ground assault. Not to bash the System Lords but have they ever considered just orbital bombardment? I mean soften the planet's populations and defense and then send in the ground troops. Just a thought.

During this clusterf**k of an mission, the SG teams hold under pressure. No wonder there of course. SG-1 is Air Force Spec Ops, a warrior more than a 100 years fighting experience and a brave paramilitary trained civilian/archeologist. SG-11 is Marine Recon so again odds are bad asses will prevail.

Sorry I beefed.

Selmak and Jacob chat through the former host and find each other to be decent folk. Selmak is smart and a capable being with vast knowledge but the host warns him that all memories, good and bad will be shared. Failures, horrors but also joy and accomplishments. Ultimately it is up to the general if he wants to do this blending. Plus the chemo and Stargate jaunt didn't help him feel any better.

O' Neill recognized the long range visual communications orb that is Goa'uld tech and slightly confused why one of the Tok'ra would use it. Given it's all one network and no real way to mask the signal. Confirming with Teal'c and later Sarah Douglas er um I mean Yosuuf/Garshaw of Belote that they have a Benedict Arnold amongst them, she and a detachment of men swoop into action weapons at the ready. Guess they don't waste time. With that, the traitor's host claims his symbiote was murdered and he had to obey the Goa'uld...and then chucks himself into the disintegrating tunnel as his own punishment. Well saves on time for a trial or vengeance but still not really helping the cause there.

Your dad beefed, Sam.

With the Goa'uld hot on their heels the SG teams and the Tok'ra all seems hopeless and only a typical last minute save can bring our collective groups out of the fire.

Can the Tok'ra be trusted?? Will Jacob/Selmak be safe?? What of Chad's love for Susie?

Coming back to these episodes it is easy to forget this goes back as far as 1997 and of course all happened because of Roland Emmerich's 1994 Stargate movie. For that further notion it has been ten years later since the last Stargate episode and it really doesn't feel like it.

This was the first real introduction to showing that Earth was not alone in this fight, that allies were possible and the humans might stand a decent chance against the impeding enemies.

Guess Jacob beefed again.

Favorite SG Episodes: The Tok'ra Part 1

Well it has been a while for this subject matter so no time like the present, eh? Welcome back to the blog and I thought I would work in a few Stargate SG-1 episodes. Among this week are some of my favorites so I thought I would share them with you all, my readers. If Stargate is not your cup of tea, well you will be disappointed with the week and I won't hold it against you. This is Stargate SG-1 Season 2: The Tok'ra Part 1

So I need to tinkle.

Yup a two-parter. You don't see many of those outside of science fiction or sci-fi fantasy.

After experiencing random memories from the deceased Jolinar, Carter has insight to tunnels created by the Tok'ra (an offshoot of the Gou'ald that share a true symbiotic relationship with their host), their guerilla warfare and tactical awareness. So much so, that SG-1 has a go to visit the coordinates of the nearby desert planet (I was unaware Vancouver had desert and bedrock) and before they can even fan out and do some recon, the team is surrounded by at least 8 would-be assailants with Jaffa sticks and Zat guns. Carter recognizes Martuf as someone Jolinar held in high regards and the ambush party reveal themselves to be members of the Tok'ra. Everyone manages to unclench and lower weapons and thank God because O' Neill was in a crouched position and that couldn't have been good for the knees.

Kind of reminds me of Planet Hell Star Trek set.

Invited to inner tunnels and sanctum, The Tok'ra proceed to evaluate the SG team confused as why a Jaffa is on their side and why Carter was once blended with Jolinar. Meanwhile Carter's father Jacob, decorated Air Force Colonel is dying of cancer. Yup wouldn't be a good drama without cancer. He knows that Sam is doing important work in Cheyenne Mountain but it is red taped classified and he knows she is not simply working on a satellite telemetry. When last they spoke he had pulled some strings to get her cleared for NASA and she blushed slightly and had to turn it down because of the importance of her work. Jacob and General Hammond go back quite awhile and he wants to know what Sam is really doing.

Meanwhile the Tok'ra are hard pressing the team for information and grating on O' Neill's nerves. This of course will lead him into a complex negotiations and diplomatic maneuvering. Oh wait, this is O' Neill. Yeah he'll get grumpy and snap at them like some irritable turtle. The Tok'ra explain that the human hosts and they exist together in one body. The hosts even speak for themselves trying to assure the SG team that they enjoy their blended lives, shared knowledge and overall experiencing one another in what anyone could viewing as two beings knowing each other completely and without shame or judgement.

Selmak their elder is dying with its host, the Tok'ra asks if any of the SG team wish to blend with Selmak to save her but of course the team passes that and explain they wish to add to each others strength and form an alliance. The Tok'ra are cagey, paranoid and with good reason. Their mere existence is an affront to the Goa'uld as much as they to them and they have only stayed alive through covert attacks and tactical planning. The team is being held in the tunnels until the Tok'ra can decide whether or not they can be trusted.

Ahhh Hell Dimension!!

With Sam millions of light years away, she is unaware her father is dying. Hey how do we ratchet up that drama? How about a Tok'ra acting shifty? Maybe even possessing one of those long range Goa'uld communications orbs?

Will the alliance be over before it begins?? Can the Gou'ald find the Tok'ra before they can escape?? Will O' Neill be insufferable??

As this episode leads out on a cliff hanger I guess you will have to wait until tomorrow for the continuation. Directed by Brad Turner (Homeland, Hawaii Five-0, 24, Alacatraz, Transporter, The Vampire Diaries, Psych, Stalker, Legends, Daredevil, Falling Skies and Wayward Pines) a seasoned TV director and producer brings his "A" game to all his work and it truly speaks for itself. This episode brings not only a turning point for the SG teams but the beginning of a much larger universe and species for humans to interact with.

Sitting on this rock is gonna be hell on my roids.

SG-1 Revisited: Prodigy

Welcome back for Day 2 of SG-1 Revisited. We are still in Season 4 of SG-1 and I always found this particular episode represented the past and the future of Stargate Command better than most of them. Imagine a lecture on wormholes being delivered by Major Carter and one of her equations was wrong. A brilliant but ill-tempered as well as ill-mannered young cadet points out this flaw and Carter sees potential in this girl if she could only play by the same rules as everyone else. This is Prodigy.

I am soooo bored.

Air Force Cadet Jennifer Hailey (Elisabeth Rosen of My Mother's Ghost, Sanctuary, Bless the Child, House of the Dead, Lucky Stars and Comforting Skin) would be a great asset to the SGC and Carter needs her to see in spite of being gifted she needs to go through the training as everyone else in order to rank up and probably not break the nose of any upper-classmates again. Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c are off-world at a research facility on a moon M4C-862 with a gathering of scientists that have deemed O' Neill and Teal'c as an unnecessary venture on Stargate Command's thinking and they will simply just get underfoot. O'Neill and Teal'c proceed to do sweeps around the base to ensure safety.

Back Earthside, Carter finds out that most of the negative attitude that stems from Hailey is due to boredom and frustration with the course she is taking. Constantly being compared to Carter regardless how her high scores in every class she attends. To sever the chip on Hailey's shoulder, Carter gets permission to give Hailey a tour of the SGC but General Hammond feels otherwise as he does not feel she is officer material. Carter goes to bat for Hailey stating if she glimpses her potential future with the SGC that she will buckle down and excel as a officer and make Hammond proud.

These titles are a bit too close to my groin.

Back at the moon, Dr. Thompson (Hrothgar Mathews of Cold Squad, The Core, Tom Stone, The Wild Guys and Cable Beach) discovers an alien life form comprised of energy phases through solid matter and discharges energy. Thompson tells the other scientists that they need to capture one for the betterment of all mankind!!! Yeah that old chestnut never comes to bite us in the ass.

Both Dr. Lee (Bill Dow of The X-Files, Cold Squad, Stargate SG-1, Pasadena, Da Vinci's Inquest, Kyle XY and Stargate: Alantis) and O'Neill think this is a bad idea as the makeshift container is breached by the lifeform zapping Thompson over and over and over again until he is a microwaved meal. Ick.

Unaware of what is happening on M4C-862, Carter and Hailey go for a visit to be right dab smack into a crisis when Carter goes into action to assist O'Neill, Teal'c and the surviving scientists. Hailey and Carter are butting heads on who hypothesized the most likely scenario while lives are in the balance. Will SG-1 be able to remove the scientists off the moon? Is M4C-862 deemed less than safe for humanity?

A few points on the episode now.

This marks the first appearance of Bill Dow of X-Files as Dr. Bill Lee. As he is barely is able to keep from being killed he ends up stay for the rest of the series, the spin-offs and even the movies. Pretty snazzy, sir.

Guest star Michael E. Ryan is the actual The Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force which Richard Dean Anderson gets to ask, "Do you really have Air Force Colonels who act the way I do? General Ryan simply replied, "Yes and worse!" General Ryan served until retirement in 2001.

No, let's not shoot it.

SG-1 Revisited: Window of Opportunity

Howdy folks and welcome to Stargate SG-1 Revisited for Day 1. Our episode revolves around a geomagnetic storm caused by solar wind shock wave or a magnetic field with the Earth's magnetic field creating a temporal loop. Can the SG-1 team get back on track? This is Window of Opportunity.

Why Fruit Loops??

On a mission on, SG-1 works with an alien archaeologist Malikai (Robin Mossley of The Sports Pages, Elf, Two for the Money, Connors' War, Painkiller Jane and R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour) and a series of ruins and a large altar device left by the Ancients and is working with Daniel Jackson to study the ruins and the device as well. Carter is measuring the solar radiation when the stargate opens up from the planet and Earth while a beam emits from the device and then... O'Neill is in the mess hall with Daniel being poignant and passionate but Jack was spacing off and eating.

They proceed to General Hammond are set to go to planet P4X-639 and both O'Neill and Teal'c claim to have previous knowledge of the mission. Dr. Fraiser does a check-up on both fellows and all is well. Before the Scooby gang can go to their mission an unscheduled off-world activation happens and... Jack is back to his breakfast and Daniel is waiting for Jack's response... Yes we looped again and again.

No, I do not want a rectal thermometer!

Daniel suggests that Jack and Teal'c loop again they need to go with him to his lab and help him translate it. After what clearly was a few weeks they are making headway but both Jack and Teal'c have lost track of the days. At some point it looks like madness is about to ensue but the guys take a few loops off. Get some games in, take a few pottery lessons, some juggling and even a few golf swings.

So with shenanigans galore plus the ongoing concern of will they ever get out of the loop, stop Malikai from activating it and God only knows how much damage this device is causing around the universe linked to an existing wormhole. What Daniel deciphers with Jack and Teal'cs help they find out the device in question is actually supposed to be a time machine... that is not a blue box or a DeLorean. Shame shame Ancients. Always go for something with a little style. According to the translation, the device was made and tested but found it could not prevent the outgoing plague it was meant to be overted so they gave up on it. Malikai insists he is close to perfecting it but there is a tiresome and exhausted expression on his face that says even he doesn't believe in his work anymore.

Will the SG-1 crew be able to stop Malikai? Are they doomed to rinse, lather and repeat? Is there no end to Jake's horrible jokes??

Some points of trivia now.

The fruit loops on Jack's spoon were glued in place to ensure continuity between time loops, hence not eating that spoonful of cereal. At almost every sci-fi and/or Stargate convention, Christopher Judge (Teal'c) claims that he hit the golf ball through the Stargate, Richard Dean Anderson could not, even after multiple takes and attempts. Finally a CGI ball was made to complete the scene.

This episode deals in good humor and dark seriousness. It is light and pithy one minute and grounded in drama the next and makes for what most SG fans as a great episode to start people on the series as it is one of the best episodes and I have to concur.

Still not sure why they keep calling me "Pretty Boy".