Redial the Gate: Space Race (with bonus S9-10 meta and birthday wishes)

[fignewton]

First of all, a belated happy birthday to thraesja! Hope it was a good one. :)

My lovely partner in crime, pepper, will be posting her recap for Space Race at redial_the_gate later today. Presumably her version will be a bit more enthusiastic than mine. :) Meanwhile, a thought or three on the ep:

Stargate has always been cheerfully shameless about ripping off homaging various movies and/or other shows. But you'd think they would pick something that people actually liked. Is there anyone out there who genuinely enjoyed the podrace scene in The Phantom Menace outside its potential for a good video game? And even if someone did like the race itself, I defy you to find anyone who found the announcer to be amusing. Just... no. Ugh.

For an episode that is about specieism rather than racism (to quote pTerry), you'd think we'd get to see a few black humans wandering about Hebridan. It's not as if perky!receptionist blinked an eye at "Murray" the second cousin. (Perky!receptionist, btw, was hugely entertaining. I was surprised she didn't pipe up with, "And we're walking!") And if Bad Guy was going to back a human to win the race, why not pick someone who was actually competent instead of riding on an empty reputation? Even with all the illegal bells and whistles that Murios had installed on his ship and the whole-scale sabotage to the other contestants, the guy still barely managed to keep in first place.

The ep had some definite oddities outside the general stupidity of the storyline. A briefing about an upcoming mission that includes Sam and Daniel, but not Jack? The sudden enthusiasm of the Hebridans for the Stargate and the granting of a ion drive, which more or less rendered Sam's participation in the race pointless? Sigh.

It bothers me that when we finally get a Sam-centric ep this season, it's got so many problems. On the other hand...

Character moments were absolute sheer GLEE. :)

Sam in leathers with a motorcycle helmet!

Sam and Daniel pre-mission, with Daniel knowing exactly how much fun Sam is going to have!

Jack: That's not our language!
Sam: It's mine, sir.
Jack: ...Right.

FOR THE WIN. :D

Teal'c avoiding boring diplomacy meetings by claiming Sam asked for his help, and Sam backing him up, and that adorable look on her face when she says, "Indeed." ::squishes them::

Also, Teal'c wearing that uniform with such cool aplomb. Teal'c and hats is always love. :) Someone needs to do a Teal'c/hat picspam!

And, of course, the closing scene with Sam and Daniel bonding moments. Wonder Twins are such fun!

And now for some S9-10 meta...

We learned in S6 that Hebridan had no idea what the Stargate was. They're still pretty new to it here, as Jack uses his pull as "Mister Man Who Has the Stargate" to get hold of Hagan when they're trying to find Teal'c. It's clear that while Hebridan is obviously very interested in the potentials presented by Stargate travel, they don't actually need it - they're a thriving, bustling planet way ahead of Tau'ri development.

One wonders, in fact, if the SGC bothered to advise them that as such an advanced civilization, using the Stargate might attract unwanted attention from the Goa'uld, who never like the idea of humans getting too far ahead and might be displeased to discover how far they've come. But whether or not such an advisory was ever issued, there is no excuse for the SGC's failure to warn them to bury the Gate in order to avoid contact with the Priors and the Ori.

For all of S9, the Ori only had access to planets in the Milky Way with Stargates. Even after the Supergate was built, they only had a few ships in the galaxy. Chances were high that any non-Gated planet would likely be safely ignored. Yet we're told in that infamous throwaway line in Counterstrike, "Five more planets have fallen to the Ori, including Hebridan and Langara." Most of us naturally focus on Langara and Jonas, but Hebridan didn't have to fall to the Ori at all, because they could have very easily buried their Stargate. It's not like Langara, which needs the Gate for interstellar travel - they've got ships and colonies that were operating for centuries without the Stargate. SG-1 and other teams traveled from world to world to warn people about the Ori and the Priors - why not add, "And if you don't actually need the Stargate on a regular basis, we suggest that you bury it for the next couple of decades as a safety precaution"?

...Possibly because that's not dramatic enough, sigh.

Can you think of any reason why such a tactic wouldn't be advisable and/or wouldn't work to strongly diminish the risk of Ori/Prior attention?

Comments

[green_grrl]

Teal'c finagling his way into the race is hilarious! I also ADORE all the goofy little Jack and Daniel interactions that are pretty much all background reaction things, and yet so damned funny--the MALP call, Daniel thinking about dipping a toe in the pool ... BOYS! *squish*

So true on Hebridan. Maybe they were discussing the closure when a Prior came through and converted at the top?

[fignewton]

I saw it more as Teal'c wanting to avoid boring diplomatic meetings, but... yeah. Especially that heartfelt, "I am in your debt, Major Carter." Hee hee hee.

I would love to see an ep rewrite which followed Jack and Daniel instead of Sam and Teal'c so we could find out what they got up to!

It's just... so frustrating that they threw away a couple of (relatively) decent planets in a single line of dialogue. But there's no real reason for Hebridan to have the Stargate open when there's such obvious danger, so... sigh.

[green_grrl]

Oh, yes, I think that was Teal'c's impetus for escape!

I'll bet the outtakes from the ep filming have even funnier J&D moments which could fill in. In fact, I think one of the DVD extras has RDA making airplane noises and zooming his hand around, and MS cracking up. :D

[fignewton]

I still haven't seen all the DVD extras, but I'm pretty sure there's no outtake from Space Race unless it's on a different DVD entirely.

Sigh. I do wish they'd given us outtakes and blooper reels. The few rare glimpses we get do suggest they're all having fun.

[green_grrl]

Hmm, poking around in michaelshanks-online.com, it was in the the Beyond the Gate DVD feature in s7. It wasn't a blooper like a funny take; it was just someone had a camera and was shooting on the set between takes. Stills in the second line and at the bottom, here:
http://www.michaelshanks-online.com/galleries/tv/sg_025.shtml

ETA: More on page 2! I will have to dig out the disc--it's been too long.

Way, way too much fun!

[fignewton]

Oooh! I've seen some of these in music vids but never the actual clip - now I have to go dig it out myself. :) :)

(BTW, could I coax you into writing some gen team fic? We still have one letter left for Team Alphabet Soup, hint hint.)

[green_grrl]

Oh, you arm twister! I was actually looking at my old Five Thingses the other day, and thinking it's been a ridiculously long time since I've written. I don't have a lot of time, but I can do an Alphabet Soup!

[fignewton]

Wheee! :D

The last letter available is K, but I can trade you my D if you'd prefer...?

[green_grrl]

I'm fine with K!

[green_grrl]

I never saw this until today! Linked from the Debrief. I'll have to download ...

http://community.livejournal.com/stargate/287296.html

[fignewton]

Saw it, giggled a lot. :) A lot of it is just multiple takes of a single scene, though. My favorite is the Sam-Daniel Morpheus scene with the caffeine pills!

[green_grrl]

I know--MICHAEL! Chris Judge's *snap snap snap* "Warp speed" cracks me up, too. And obviously "Marty" is too much fun on set. :D