Stargate SG-1 1015 Bounty

[fignewton]

Oh, SG-1. And you were doing so well in this second half of the season…

Most of this was typed out as I watched, although I went back and added some extra comments here and there. Spoilers ahead, obviously!

With all the upheaval and struggle with the Ori, and worrying about the new warships that have entered the galaxy, SG-1 takes time out to go and worry about some addictive corn? And playing near-to-terrorist roles, in beaming onto a ship with people aboard and blowing it up? No. Just – NO.

The bad guys have Earth-like projectile weapons, instead of the usual energy stuff? And really, who cares about the Lucian Alliance and this guy whose name I can’t be bothered to remember, even though I just heard it on-screen? The premise of a thriving underworld in the galaxy, operating in spite of the Goa’uld, was intriguing. Its actual presentation? Mind-numbingly boring and cliched as anything. And I’m supposed to be worried about this LA guy setting a bounty on the heads of SG-1? Sorry, writers, but we did this already in S3, and it was entertaining then. We’d better at least have a guest appearance from Aris Boch before this episode ends!

Tremendous charm in SG-1 actually taking downtime for a change. What a pity we can expect this bounty thingy to interfere. Teal’c with the Jaffa, natch. Not sure how much fun Sam will have at a conference, but… Daniel is taking downtime at a museum? He’s still my Daniel, even in S10! Yay! But why in the world does Mitchell want to go to his high-school reunion? Much less drag Vala along? “Don’t make me beg you”? What was she doing until then?

::blinks:: Mitchell is from Kansas? I always pictured him as being south of the Dixie Line.

Bill Lee! Bill and Sam at a conference together! Oh – it’s not down-time for her. Too bad. But it’s fun to see them together, and that’s actually quite an intelligent premise – that alien technology is slowly revealed via these kinds of conferences, by making them not-quite-right at first so that it seems sensible that they’re eventually perfected. Very nice. Bill seems to enjoy it more than Sam though – but huh? Why did I have the very distinct impression that Bill is happily married, with a couple of kids? Could it be… ::gasp:: FANON? :) Seriously, I’m sorry to see that my impression was wrong, because aside from Colonel Dixon and Simon Wells of SG-13, we never get to see any SGC members with families. But Bill’s happy advice to Sam, and the pole-axed expression on her face? Priceless.

Are we supposed to think it’s funny that Vala is talking to Mitchell’s parents like this? If she doesn’t realize how offensive she’s being, then yes, it’s funny – although it makes her look pretty stupid. If she’s doing it deliberately, why? It’s cruel and unneccesary, and Mitchell doesn’t deserve it.

On the other hand, Mitchell’s parents are wonderful. :)

Daniel in his natural habitat! Whee! Daniel looking mighty fine in his natural habitat! Daniel being… stalked in his natural habitat. Oops. This woman is definitely odd. And HEY! ::carefully rewinds:: She’s wearing a big honkin’ ring that looks decidedly like the one Martouf had before he got killed. Red Alert! We’ve got bounty hunter here, don’t we? And a rather clueless/shameless flirty one, too. If she’s going to stalk Daniel Jackson in a museum, do some research first! Silly bounty hunter.

Bounty Hunters From Outer Space! Sounds like a cheesy sci-fi movie, doesn’t it? And Star Trek makeup for the loss win! They have “three signals” but not four? Guys? Even I know there are five members of SG-1 nowadays, and the writers forget that? No one notices the mysterious explosions so close to Earth? And ARGH! This guy is supposed to be the Aris Boch of the episode, isn’t he? Just from that one line of dialogue, I can see that he’s nowhere near Boch’s class.

“I like your mother.” Yeah, I do too. “Your loss.” That is so Vala.

Teal’c of the Tau’ri with the Jaffa! Yay! But doesn’t he already have a seat on the Council? I really thought he did. And hasn’t much of the Council been decimated by various stupidies inflicted on us by the writers? Nevertheless, I was really pleased to see Teal’c treated by respect for a change.

It is WONDERFUL to see Teal’c holding a staff weapon again. Teal’c with a P-90 just isn’t the same. And yes, a bounty hunter attacking Teal’c off-world is twenty times more believable than the apparent idea that at least two bounty hunters have snuck secretly onto Earth – and that they can easily track them. But it was hard to believe that both Teal’c and the other Jaffa would just shoot blindly in one direction without guarding their six. I was cringing and expecting them to be shot from behind, not for a stray shot to have gotten through before they took cover. Bad tactics, Teal’c. Bra’tac would be disappointed. Does shirtless!Teal’c make up for that?

::covers eyes and sighs:: Look, I’m not a Vala fan. I’m not. She annoys me and bothers me and I have a very hard time accepting Vala 3.0 as being the same person as Vala 2.0, much less the original Vala 1.0. But she’s played by a marvelous actress who, quite frankly, has chemistry with everybody (except Daniel in my opinion), and she should not be reduced to the role of eye-candy in those ridiculously skimpy shorts and midriff-baring shirt. Just… no. But I’m beginning to think that Vala was being clueless with Mitchell’s parents in the earlier scene, because she happily starts telling a very-obviously-off-world story before Mitchell – erm. Pinches her?

Am I really supposed to care about Mitchell’s childhood sweetheart? And, hey! That’s the woman from Euronda! Even the same hairstyle, if I'm not mistaken. Sweet SG-1 and its amazing ability to recycle guest stars. :) I did like Vala whapping Mitchell on the head. Why don’t they put Mitchell and Vala together more often? If it’s because the actors were major leads on Farscape – who CARES?

Darren is one of the more engaging minor characters we’ve gotten, I think. Decidedly clueless but a nice guy. Very likeable.

Oh, I laughed at Daniel’s expression when the woman told him she’d been watching him and why. He actually looked around and expected someone to jump out and shout, “You’re on Candid Camera!” And while he has certainly been incredibly impulsive in the past about attractive women, good for him for showing a little sense. Until – whoa! And shame on you, Daniel! Shield yourself with the laptop and not the valuable book. Daniel should have known better.

This is just one huge cliché, isn’t it? Woman (with child) in danger. Eeeevil bounty hunter with ridiculous spike heels. And then she gets HIT WITH A BUS??

…This is a fanfic, right?

So. Sam talking to Landry. Are we really supposed to blandly accept that anyone and their brother can waltz into Earth’s airspace in a cloaked ship? Why haven’t they figured out how to defeat a cloak yet? I’d say they’re incredibly luckly the Goa’uld didn’t send someone in a cloaked ship with a naquadah bomb to the coordinates of Cheyenne Mountain. But hee! for Sam’s hasty offer to get away from the stupid conference.

I really enjoyed Lee’s presentation, especially since he was acting – as he said at the beginning of the ep, he knew it wasn’t going to work, but he went all-out anyway. Not quite sure when I became a Bill Lee fangirl, but apparently I am. :)

Sam or someone from her division must have come up with some way to get better reception in case of emergency. And surely Mitchell knew how bad reception was in his home town? It just seemed silly to me. But “Me and Daisy” was great. Now, that’s a pop reference that fits (especially with that insane outfit of hers) and is appropriate to the setting, unlike his blathering last ep about The Da Vinci Code to a bunch of natives off-world. And Vala as a dead-shot – “Accounts. Receivable.” Hee!

And here’s the bounty after Sam. Nice set-up with the hologram, and Sam after the bounty was Whoo! Go, Sam! :) She and Bill make a pretty good team, don’t they? “Nice demo.” Heh. And did anyone notice the actual (gasp) continuity, even if it was to a lousy ep like Covenant? And I liked the slight alienness of this bounty hunter – just a bit off, instead of the Star Trek putty-faces of the guys blown up in the solar system.

Teal’c sets himself up as bait and bags yet another bounty hunter.

Okay. Every. single. bit. of the reunion was awful. Innocent people killed, and played for laughs. Rings in public. It became a farce, and a really stupid one. The charm of “PDL for Class Secretary” and “Damian Kindler for President” wasn’t enough for me to avoid rolling my eyes at a member of the SGC reduced to using a pay phone. And the bounty hunters – are we supposed to believe these are the best in the business? – were more like the Keystone Kops. I only liked three bits, and astonishingly enough, they were all Vala’s. First, her inability to remember what a “cover story” is. Second, her mature discussion with Darren re Tomin. That really moved me, and Darren is still a very likeable character – “So you’re separated?” in that hopeful voice. Third, her natural assumption that the bounty hunter was after her, and her determination to do something about it. But that’s it. And I really didn’t like the way the bounty hunter hit her. Very ugly. Although it was nice of her to offer herself to protect the civilians.

So, there were only four tags instead of five because Vala had stayed with the ship when they were busy blowing up space corn? I did like Daniel’s distinct look of discomfort as Sam is explaining this, tough. Daniel + radiation is not a good mix, as far as he’s concerned.

Why are they wearing their SG patches for an on-world mission?

WHY DOES ANYONE EVEN PRETEND THAT THE STARGATE PROGRAM IS STILL A SECRET? Ahem. Excuse me. I just have no words left. At least they took off their patches before they beamed in. And Daniel as soothe-the-agitated-natives was at least the right choice.

“Yeah, but what happened to Vala?” Darren doesn’t seem too worried about Mitchell, does he?

Daniel quotes Scooby Doo? Er. Right.

Do I care that the LA guy – Natan, that’s it – is dead? Nope. Not in the slightest. Do I care about Mitchell’s girlfriend? Even less.

Conclusion: Despite some nice character bits here and there, this was not the ep of Stargate that we were supposed to see. Someone accidently filmed the screenplay of a badly-written fanfic instead.

Now I can go read the reviews on my flist, and Whee! Got my sd_ficathon back from my marvelous beta! Time for the fun stuff. :)

Comments

[niamaea.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no....comment on the episode, although when I saw it on the SkyOne go-around I was very "...bwuh?" to the whole thing as well.

For Bill Lee, though -- I think it is canon that he has kids (although, Atlantis canon). He used 101 Dalmatians and the twilight bark sequence to explain a concept, and then his kids really like the movie, or something. But I guess he's...not married? I hope he's not married! Bill! Tsk.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Bill Lee was in SGA? Did someone tell me this before and I just don't remember?

Maybe he's divorced and has joint custody? He'd better not be married and praising the "singles' scene." It would be wholly out of character for one of the genuinely nice guys at the SGC.

[tringasolitaria.livejournal.com]

Enjoyed your review - LOL. No, I didn't think Bounty was a shining moment for SG1 either, although it had some good moments. Like you, I thought most of them revolved around Vala, but then I like Vala, so... *wince* Don't hate me! :)

Why did I have the very distinct impression that Bill is happily married, with a couple of kids? Could it be… ::gasp:: FANON? :)

I think a lot of us thought that because of Lee's comment about his kids and the twilight bark. Gahh! I can't remember what episode it was. PP maybe? But they were talking about relaying a message through space, and Lee compared it to the Twilight bark, and then, when no one got that reference, he compared it to the signal fires in LotR, and everyone got that. I think a lot of people, myself included, thought he was happily married based on that.

This is just one huge cliché, isn’t it? Woman (with child) in danger. Eeeevil bounty hunter with ridiculous spike heels. And then she gets HIT WITH A BUS??

Ohhhhhh that griped me!! The "hit by a bus" thing was the worst part of the episode for me. I was like "wha....? That did not seriously just happen."

WHY DOES ANYONE EVEN PRETEND THAT THE STARGATE PROGRAM IS STILL A SECRET? Ahem. Excuse me. I just have no words left. At least they took off their patches before they beamed in.

Yes, I was thinking that myself. Of course, I was starting to have serious problems in Ex Deus Machina when they beamed an entire skyscraper into space! This was just the icing on the cake.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Okay, I just did a search for Bill Lee in Atlantis on the wonderful Gatenoise website, which is where I go for all my transcript needs. The ep in question is Critical Mass and now I want to see that scene, because Lee seems utterly adorable in here. Channelling first 101 Dalmations and then LoTR? I need someone to make me a clip of just that scene, I really do!

He only mentions his kids. We could say he's widowed, or divorced. Or we could say that the writers didn't bother with continuity (as usual) when they were trying to inject a bit of humor into the scene here. :)

[niamaea.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he had a few scenes in one of the episodes that Landry guested in. (I don't remember much of the episode, but I remember Lee was pretty funny. No one at the SGC got the Twilight Bark reference, so he used Lord of the Rings as an example instead, and everyone got that.)

Cheerfully bragging about cheating on his wife to Sam would be...bizarre, so I'm assuming writers either forgot (or never knew) about the reference to kids on SGA or he's divorced/widowed.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Hee! I would never hate anyone for liking Vala. I'm glad for you that she doesn't interfere with your squee.

Re Bill Lee: niamaea mentioned this, too, and I looked it up. I really do want to get hold of a clip of that scene somehow, because it flashes me right back to the great scene in Fifth Race with the clueless SGC scientists. It really sounds delicious.

And I think it's sad that he's not happily married. It would be a nice change from the usual "single scene" at the SGC, wouldn't it? Although I'm not quite sure how I had that impression from a scene in SGA, which I've never watched. The power of fandom osmosis, maybe?

I was starting to have serious problems in Ex Deus Machina when they beamed an entire skyscraper into space!

Heh. I have erased all memory of that ep from my mind, because I hate the cloned!Baal storyline with the fire of a thousand burning nuns, as I believe the SG-1 version goes. :)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

There's an incredible amount of charm in that, though - that the Twilight Barking should be the first comparison in his head, not the scene from RotK. And that does truly suggest a man who is solidly entrenched in his children's world.

Widowed? Divorced? Stupid non-continuity writers? Take your pick, I guess. :)

[tringasolitaria.livejournal.com]

OK, it was bugging me, so I did some looking around. The episode was SGA #2-13 "Critical Mass". The SGC had discovered that there was a Trust operative on Atlantis, and was trying to figure out a way to let Atlantis know that when they dialed up the gate for their weekly report, it would set off an explosion. Here's the dialogue. Oh, and Lee was also in The Return, Parts 1 & 2 in Atlantis Season 3.

LEE: P4M-399. It's a -- it's a tiny little planet right on the very outskirts of our galaxy, but if we can send a science team there through the Gate, they should be close enough (he draws a semi-circular line linking Earth to P4M-399) to relay the information to the Daedalus (he draws another line linking the planet and Daedalus) and then they can ... (He draws another line linking Daedalus and Atlantis, then turns to face the table.) It's-it's-it's like the Twilight Bark. (Everyone looks at him blankly.) Twilight Bark? "Hundred and One Dalmatians?" Didn't you guys see that movie? My kids love it. Any ... Well, OK, so there's all these dogs (he turns to the board) and one barks here (he indicates Earth), one barks here, (he indicates P4M-399) one ... (He indicates Daedalus, then Atlantis.) They-they send a message across the countryside. (He turns to the table again but everyone is still silent and blank. Then he gets inspiration.) "Lord of the Rings." (The scientists immediately nod and smile.) "Lord of the Rings!" You know, when they light all those signal fires on the mountain tops? (The S.G. team now gets it and they nod and grin.) You saw that, right?! So, OK ...

[tringasolitaria.livejournal.com]

Woops. Guess you already found it. Yes it was a great scene.

And I think it's sad that he's not happily married. It would be a nice change from the usual "single scene" at the SGC, wouldn't it? Although I'm not quite sure how I had that impression from a scene in SGA, which I've never watched. The power of fandom osmosis, maybe?

Possibly. *grins* It will eat your brain *evil laugh*. No, I think you're right about the married people issue. I've always thought it was a shame that we didn't have more people with families. Do you remember Col. Dixon and SG-13 from Heroes, in Season 7? I always wished they could have been brought back for more episodes.

Heh. I have erased all memory of that ep from my mind, because I hate the cloned!Baal storyline with the fire of a thousand burning nuns, as I believe the SG-1 version goes. :)

Ah ha! Someone who agrees with me on that point! I loathe and despise the cloned!Baal storyline. Insiders must have been torture for you - it was for me. :( :( Or have you erased it too? *grin*

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thank you for putting in the effort to find this for me! I did dig it up, and I must say that Lee sounds utterly adorable here. Not quite sure it's enough to make me want to watch an ep of SGA, but I really do wish I could get hold of a clip of that one scene somehow! :)

[tringasolitaria.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm a huge SGA fan..watched SG1 for years, then switched loyalties when SGA came along. But even for me, Critical Mass had some issues. *rueful grin* But yes, this was a good scene.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Insiders... Insiders... Nope, doesn't ring a bell. :)

Oh! Was that the one at the beginning of this season where Sam caves in and gives Ba'al enough info to search for the Sangraal on his own? No Daniel, so I just read the transcript and was spared a lot of cringing. :)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Doesn't seem fair, does it? They expected us in the last two eps to be fully up-to-date with SGA canon. Now they want us to ignore SGA canon (that Bill has kids) for the sake of a cheap laugh... Sigh. I love SG-1 anyway. :)

[tringasolitaria.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was it. Wish I'd done the same. :)

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Yay for Darren love!!! He's one of my favorite one-ep characters -- I adored him. He had moxie! And I felt sad, because I also loved that Vala cares about her marriage. Too bad Mitchell's high school sweetheart was such a paper thin character. I'm supposed to ship the leader of Earth's first line of defense with a divcorcee he hasn't seen his entire adult life, who's lived a quiet suburban Middle American existence... why? Hell, at least Pete was a cop, and he still didn't have the right stuff to be an SG-1 spouse.

WHY DOES ANYONE EVEN PRETEND THAT THE STARGATE PROGRAM IS STILL A SECRET?

WORST KEPT SECRET ON THE PLANET! Hell, the fatality rate of personnel assigned to a non-combatant space watch base in the middle of the continent alone... ;-)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Lee's been in a few episodes of Atlantis (if you looked at his bio (http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=377284&st=22965) in the wiki you would know this, LOL...still jealous of the rival transcript site shout out, don't mind me. :-p

I didn't mind the only four bounty because they knew they'd only hit four of them with the tracker (Vala was flying the ship). Why the hell they were on corn patrol after the Shroud...you got me.

I still feel bad for Gary the insurance guy and I loved Darrell (gives a whole new side to that dragon, don't it? I still say his name is Puff).

As for the "bounty" episode. I lost track of the "bus" sized plot holes and oontinuity issues.

Watching it again, it's entertaining enough in scenes if you don't look to closely at anything except the various pretty.

BTW, Amy Vandenberg, was played by Anne Marie Loder/DeLuise, director Peter's wife (she was his girfriend back in "Other Side" days).

You asked about other SGA crossovers. That scientific candidate in Avalon who knew a bunch of languages in her interview with Mitchell and was later on the planet where the first Prior popped up ended up in SGA in an episode as an anthropologist working with some people out there. Only in one episode.

Lee and Landry and Sam cross over on occasion. Aside from Lorne, I'm not remembering anyone else offhand--oh except for hiccupy Novak from PU. She ended up on "Daedalus" so she's recurring on SGA now.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

P.S.

Now I can go read the reviews on my flist, and Whee! Got my sd_ficathon back from my marvelous beta!

Eep! Do you have to rub it in? ;-)

[maevebran.livejournal.com]

because I hate the cloned!Baal storyline with the fire of a thousand burning nuns, as I believe the SG-1 version goes. :)

What? Burning NUNS? Huh?

[maevebran.livejournal.com]

I didn't mind the only four bounty because they knew they'd only hit four of them with the tracker (Vala was flying the ship). Why the hell they were on corn patrol after the Shroud...you got me.

Unless they were testing out Daniel's return to normal and giving SG1 an easy mission to sort of do a shake down cruise.

I personally liked the episode as pure fun but didn't really want to analize it too closely. (I don't normally analize my entertainment in detail just sort of enjoy it.)

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

::blinks:: Mitchell is from Kansas? I always pictured him as being south of the Dixie Line.

I believe synecdochic is still taking memberships in the "Our Fanon Makes More Sense Than Your Canon Club" on Mitchell...

My hypothesis is that his Dad was military, so Mitchell was raised in the south, near most of his extended family. He moved with his mom to Kansas to be near an ailing relative and attended high school there. His mom inherited the house in Kansas, so she and his dad retired there.

Because not even the fact they are furriners who are unfamiliar with American regional accents is a good enough excuse for giving Mitchell a southern accent and then sticking his parents in Kansas.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yes, Darren was wonderful. He was amazingly fully realized for a single-ep character, wasn't he? And I was genuinely moved that Vala cared for her marriage - I was half-expecting her to reference Daniel, and was immensely pleased that he didn't!

Mitchell's childhood sweetheart left me blinking. As you say - SG-1 is too branded to deal with ordinary people. OTOH, Mitchell hasn't been doing this for that long, and I see a lot of the innocence in him that too many writers claim for Daniel. So maybe he could pull it off. Whether I'd care is another story. :)

the fatality rate of personnel assigned to a non-combatant space watch base in the middle of the continent alone...

Heh. There's a crossover fic out there where the characters of JAG come to Cheyenne to investigate the suspicious high numbers of fatalities in the Marines stationed there. I don't know the show at all, but I enjoyed the story anyway.

I wanted to ask you, btw: You commented on The Shroud about MS's reference to Daniel turning down an advance from a woman. After seeing this ep, I wonder if he was talking about the bounty hunter, not Adria. What do you think?

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't be disappointed, Aurora! I'm pretty sure the wiki wasn't around when I first started reading transcripts back in the summer of 2005. At least,not when I bookmarked the site for transcipts so I could read a bit about this interesting guy named Daniel Jackson that the members of my regular mb were gushing about in the OT folder... Heh. Haven't looked back since. :)

Gary the insurance guy is dead and is used as comic relief. I find it hard to imagine that anyone found it funny.

Is it Darrel, then, and not Darren? I couldn't be sure. I tried to read his name tag and the last letter is annoyingly hidden by the lapel. :) But LOL at the Puff nod! If you're right, would that suggest Vala has a thing for Darrels?

I can see what you mean about watching it a second time - skip to the parts you like to enjoy teh pretty (::cough Daniel in his natural habitat shirtless Teal'c cough::) and ignore the rest. It just seems like such a waste to spend an ep on the stupidity that is the Lucien Alliance when we have so little time left.

Does Novak still hiccup on SGA, or is she truly cured? And from Pegasus Project, I thought the only Sam on SGA so far was the one that McKay hallucinated? (Yes, I've seen spoilers for next years' run. Since I don't watch SGA, I don't much care.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I'm rubbing in that I have a marvelous beta who isn't afraid to call me on the need for smoother pacing and a lot of clarification. And has requested two scenes that I didn't want to write but knew I would probably have to, in the end. So trust me, I'm back to work. :)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Someone more knowledgable than I (as in aurora_novarum, maybe? ::bg::) can explain this more clearly, but... I believe Michael Shanks said, either in a DVD commentary or an interview, that he (and possibly Chris Judge?) hated something with "the passion of a thousand burning suns," and this got warped along the way to "the passion of a thousand burning nuns." Or something.

Anyone out there who can clarify this?

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

That's a rather intelligent handwave, actually. Of course, I wouldn't call blowing people up in order to get rid of evil corn particularly an easy mission, especially if they're trying to test Daniel's return to normal values. But I digress. :) I think you've chosen the right course for enjoying this ep: ignore the silliness and snicker at the cliches and teh pretty.