Dial the Gate: Shadow Play

[fignewton]

redial_the_gate does Shadow Play today. Back to new eps for me! Let's see what I remember the transcripts about this ep... Um. They go back to Kelowna? That's about it. No real episode discussion below, just liveblogging my reactions. Onwards!

First thing I see when on the DVD's episode title page is Al Calavicci. Oh, dear. :) I've seen only a fraction of the television shows that most people watch, but Quantum Leap is one of the few that I enjoyed enough to track down nearly every episode. (No, not all of them. I don't think I've seen every episode of any television show, period.) I adored Al on Quantum Leap and making the (heh) leap to seeing Dean Stockwell as another character isn't going to be easy.

Also, the screencap shows him wearing a brown tweed jacket. If he's supposed to be from Kelowna, that's a tad on the ridiculous side. Anyone else remember Jonas in his dress robe back in Meridian? Parallel industrial development is one thing, but I draw the line at parallel fashion styles.

Oooh, always dramatic to see all the guards aiming at an active Stargate!

Kelowna. Great music and look at Hammond's face. Last time the SGC dealt with Kelowna, they were busy framing Daniel... and Earth granted refugee status to the guy who fled with all their precious naquadria.

Hee, Jack. "I hope you diplomatically told them where to shove it." :)

Actually, I love what this says about the whole team here in their reactions, with little paraphrasing to add in facial expressions:

Jack: "The creeps tried to frame Daniel!"

Jonas: "It's not fair to write off the whole planet just because a few scientists lied through their teeth."

[Er. Even as I typed that, the parallels to this planet hit me over the head with a sledgehammer. Whatever the rest of this episode may be about, I am going to politely remind all of you that I do not talk real world politics in this LJ. Thanks.)

Teal'c: "Why should I forgive the people who behaved so badly to my friend when they don't even have any nice shiny toys to bribe us with?"

Sam: "I hate myself for having to say this, but the naquadria is a pretty powerful bargaining chip."

Getting back to Jonas and his remark - is it just me, or is there a little retconning going on over there? I had the very strong impression that blaming Daniel wasn't just up to Tomas, but a government decision.

I was wondering why there was a pineapple in someone's office, but then Teal'c walked in and I realized he was talking to Jonas so the question became moot. :D

Very nice scene between Teal'c and Jonas here. Understated, but very much part of this to me, is the unspoken acknowledgment of the unintended collateral damage to one Doctor Daniel Jackson on their way to turning their backs on what they once were to join the Tau'ri. That is kinda... ow.

"One day, your people will benefit from the sacrifices you have made." Hearing that line from the perspective of post S10 hurts, y'know?

Hi Al! And hee, yes, that brown tweed suit AND TIE is utterly ridiculous. :)

Love love love Jonas and his wordless anxiety. And when Professor Al (I think Kirin, they said it was?) ignored him, the clear implication that the guy he worked with for six years is utterly snubbing him - poor Jonas.

"You accused a member of my team of sabotage to cover up your own incompetence." ::snickers at Jack's idea of diplomacy::

"I'm just curious. What made you think we would care?" And SAM'S EXPRESSION. Hee hee hee.

That line about how the SGC "regularly interfere in the affairs of a race known as the Go'auld" deserves careful consideration. Of course, the SGC is more concerned with internal planetary affairs than the Prime Directive, but a good line nonetheless.

So, they're effectively threatening to make Daniel's sacrifice meaningless by blowing up their planet anyway. Pretty nasty bit of blackmail there.

(And I'm trying NOT to let my knowledge of Homecoming color my perception of the commander guy here, but it's not working very well.)

"Jonas, you're a member of SG-1 now. Your priorities have changed." Does Jack have any idea how much he's demanding from Jonas with that? For Sam and Jack and Daniel, being a member of SG-1 and loyalty to their home planet never offered any conflict - although I suppose if there had been some major clash with Abydos, there might very well have been a problem for Daniel. But how well did "changing priorities" ever work with Teal'c and his Jaffa Revenge Thing - or, for that matter, the two occasions on which Teal'c was ready to dump SG-1 to help lead his people? I can't even say that if Shau'nac or Kaytano had been the real thing, Teal'c would've been wrong to leave the SGC to join them. Part of me wonders if it would've been better for Jonas to recluse himself in such a situation. Only, of course, they needed him for his insight and knowledge into the dealings of the planet. So no good answers here.

"I have nothing against them defending themselves, but how do we know they'll stop there?" "...You sound like Doctor Jackson." "We spent some time together." Oh, JACK.

I just realized - it's not just the incongruity of the brown tweed suit on a Kelownan that jars. It's the complete somber bland look on Al Calavicci. Sorry, I can't help it. :)

How do people who watch lots of television ever manage to lose themselves in a storyline? During that entire scene with Jonas and Doctor Kirin, I kept seeing Admiral Al Calavicci of the U.S. Navy.

"Are you ready to go home?" Oh dear.

Another guy in a tie, with an admittedly odd tie clip. Everyone else on Kelowna is either in military-type uniform or decidedly different style clothing. I do think it was a big mistake on the costuming department's part.

"Have you spoken to your superiors? "Yes, we have." ::looooong pause:: "They send their best." Ah, Jack. :) And poor Sam, hee!

Oooh, the unspoken quotes around the word "accident" and the shadow of Daniel in Jack's eyes. I don't like this First Minister guy.

Love Teal'c cutting to the chase.

Jonas and the First Minister. Oooh. "I made my choices and I'm going to stick by them." And the insinuations, the veiled threats, the offer of a pardon and reinstatement. Poor Jonas. And again that line, "It's time, Jonas, for you to come home." After all this, I don't know how he managed it in Homecoming, I really don't.

I assume that scene with Jonas and Kirin is deliberately played to make us wonder whether or not Jonas is going to betray Kirin. Actually, I'm wondering if it's actually happening at all. It has an... oddly dreamlike quality to me.

"Have you spoken with your professor?" "No, I haven't seen him today." So I'm right about that last scene being unreal, then?

Anyone else see just a wee bit of hypocrisy in representatives of the SGC suggesting that it would be best to announce the existence of the Stargate and other worlds to the rest of the nations of the planet? And, heh - the minister calls Jonas on it. I wonder how he knows that it's a secret on Earth, though?

Does Tomas really need introducing as part of the naquadria project after his involvement in Meridian? And at first I thought Kirin was threatening that the Resistance would use the naquadria in the coup, but no - he's offering it to Earth. Kirin is really squeezed between a rock and a hard place.

(Also, the dramatic lighting of the strobing light from the fan is kinda neat.)

Again, I'm not sure that's Jonas. The voice sounds almost robotic, and grabbing Kirin like that doesn't seem to be his style.

...And, yeah. No Jonas on the grating above. Not really happening, right?

JANET! Although I'm wondering how they managed to get Kirin to Earth. Ah, and there's the answer - Jonas convinced them of the Little Doc's superiority. :)

Advanced schizophrenia. Huh. "Full-blown hallucinations." That explains the robotic Jonas scenes.

Okay, let me get this straight. Jonas is trying to negotiate all on his lonesome while Sam and Teal'c and Jack track down a whole stockpile of naquadria dumped in a cobwebbed warehouse?

Jonas is fantastic here. "It's literally in their blood! They can smell it!" (Okay, I don't know about that, but Hathor certainly was able to track down the Stargate.) His appeal is wonderful.

Ah - so the Resistance wasn't real, and Kirin stockpiled naquadria for the people who never existed outside his own head. Poor guy. And the radiation from the naquadria might very well have accelerated the problem. I'm a little alarmed at wondering how well it was shielded against radiation in that warehouse. And oh, I hadn't made the connection between the two missing scientists and what really happened.

Schizophrenia and medication and brain damage. So, did anyone take a PET scan of Daniel's brain back in Legacy? (Sorry, it's the Daniel fangirl in me.)

Poor Jonas. I don't think that can be said enough in this ep. That last scene with Kirin... poor guy. Both of them.

Final question: Did the team have the right to swipe the naquadria they found? And how incompetent are the Kelownans that they didn't even notice that Sam and Teal'c were carrying a crateful of naquadria back through the Stargate?

To keep discussion in one place, please comment over at LJ. Thanks!