Redial the Gate squee: Enigma

[fignewton]

Some random thoughts on Enigma, because redial_the_gate goes live with the recap sometime tonight:

"No argument from me - wait, what's that?" <= Please note Daniel's idea of "no argument."

"This one's had it!" Ah, Sam, that's the sensitive cultural expert speaking... :)

Such love for early SG-1, when Hammond proudly compliments SG-1 for doing nothing more than saving people. Happy sigh.

I adore Omoc. He's unquestionably a good guy, but largely unlikeable with no social graces whatsoever. In short, he's real.

Daniel drinks more coffee in this episode than any other. Tollans, evidently, make him thirsty.

The female SF from Hathor is quite prominent in this one! Sadly, I don't think we ever see her again. ::mutters:: Bet Maybourne fired her, the rat.

Love the Sam and Daniel banter in the Gateroom. "New toy?" "One of them keeps asking a lot of questions about you." And the control room later, heh. "Whoops."

I loved Sam and Jack and Hammond honoring Tuplo by wearing their dress blues. And Tuplo took Omoc's rudeness with remarkable graciousness, which just goes to show that primitives are capable of class. In fact, we got a lot of dress blues this episode. Bonus!

Considering the VIP room that Hathor got, couldn't they find something a little nice than metal bunks for the Tollan?

I have an incredible fondness for young!Walter with hair.

Maybourne is a sleaze. I do not comprehend why so many people like him, I really don't. Yes, I very much enjoy the sheer antagnosim between Jack and Maybourne, and it's right up front from the very beginning - but like Maybourne? No way.

Hammond, on the other hand, rocks. And his ploy with the quarantine is exactly the kind of thing we should have seen from the entire SGC during Chain Reaction, but sadly didn't.

I love Teal'c's passion on behalf of the Tollan. He's been there. He suffered with Kennedy. He knows exactly what the NID are capable of doing.

"You know, the Pentagon, Intelligence, that I can understand. But the President? I voted for him!" Hee! Daniel's righteous indignation makes me giggle. This is the only kind of politics that gets a pass in my personal fandom, thank you.

Daniel the civilian as secret weapon. Oh, I love it. His ability to inspire trust is one of his absolute greatest assets. Omoc was actually willing to explain something to him, even if it was totally over Daniel's head.

Narim is one of the nicest guys that fell for Sam, isn't he? Although the slightly stalkerish thing in S5 about using her voice for his home's audio system makes it kinda borderline.

Daniel and Teal'c, civilians, defying the NID. Oh, I love them. Daniel snarking wordlessly at Maybourne - huh? what'd you say? - is absolutely squeeful, every time.

I love Lya. I love her face when she sees Daniel, and Daniel's when he greets her. In fact, Daniel is particularly beautiful in this episode. I just think that needed to be said.

Maybourne ordered the SFs to fire after the Tollan had already disappeared. In short, he was essentially telling the men to fire at Daniel and Teal'c, although admittedly Teal'c wasn't actually standing in the line of fire the way that Daniel was. Tell me again why people like him?

And now I want someone to write me the AU where the soldiers did fire before Lya vanished their weapons, and both Teal'c and Daniel are hurt or killed, and Lya spirits them away with her to the Nox planet to heal them, and Teal'c and Daniel have all sorts of adventures together before they finally make it back to Earth just in time to rescue Sam and Jack in Antarctica.

Yes. Someone write that. Please? :)

Jack: "I love those people." See? See? It's not just the Asgard! Jack likes Good Guys, that's all.

Jack, again: "You did good, Daniel." All together, now: Awwwww. :)

I always did wonder, though, why all four of them were staring at an inactive Stargate at the end.

Comments

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I've seen plenty of Atlantis fans seethe at Lucius and how much it was handwaved (and I'm a little ashamed that at first my brain glossed over that aspect of that SGA episode, though I have potential excuses for why).

And, yeah, Hathor is....complicated. There are parts of the episode I like, but Daniel and Hathor (for that matter, Jack and Kynthia in Brief Candle) is just wrong - not so much it happening (which is wrong, sure) but how easily it's blown off.

Also, I definitely agree with you on Vala - that's how I see her a lot too. But she also grew on me WAY more than I thought she would.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Yes, I've seen some seething too about Lucius, and I can even understand if that aspect didn't hit people at first. (The first time I read Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale, I'd forgotten by the end that the main character starts as a rapist! I couldn't believe it when I reread the Tale!) What appalls me most are the people who actively defend Lucius! There are, of course, people in this world who use alcohol and, far worse, GHB, to achieve some of the ends Lucius did.

Yes, "Hathor" had some good possibilities, but, oh, man! How could they ignore what happened to Daniel, or play it for a laugh? If they'd just taken it seriously, it could have been a thought-provoking episode. Only fanfic writers seem to have taken the rape seriously, however.

I think Kynthia and Jack had a total misunderstanding. She assumed Jack knew what the cake represented, and that it was also a drug, because she'd never met anyone who didn't know; unlike Lucius, I don't think she intended to take advantage of the person she drugged. She assumed Jack's consumption of the cake meant he accepted her and was willing to use the drug. Jack, of course, had no way of understanding, so it is most certainly not his fault. It's an awful miscommunication, but Kynthia's intent was not bad (as far as I recall; it has been a while!).

I was already disposed to like Vala, because Claudia was so great on Farscape.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Okay, yeah, not okay. I don't seem to hate the Lucius episodes as much as most of fandom but I absolutely do not condone or defend his actions at all. To be fair, the characters were pretty unimpressed with what Lucius had done, just possibly not as revolted as they could/should have been maybe?

Stargate does that a lot though - not really dealing with the emotional ramifications of what the characters go through (Jack and Ba'al, Sam and Fifth, Teal'c and Apophis, Daniel and Hathor, etc, etc).

Someday I really, really want to write something exploring Sha're and Apophis vs. Daniel and Hathor but I really don't think I'm smart enough or brave enough to actually pull it off.

Point about Kynthia. She didn't intend to take advantage of him, and I do think intent mattered. At the same time, he was drugged in a way that let down his inhibitions and then had sex, so, intent was less of a big deal, but there still could have been ramifications (can you imagine if he'd fathered a child? given how soon this was after Charlie? and given that the people on that planet must be MUCH more likely to conceive if they're going to have their people survive with such short life spans?)

I didn't start watching Farscape until after I'd seen Vala but, yes, that makes TONS of sense :)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Teal'c and Apophis

Now there I disagree with you. :) I thought we got a lot of Teal'c and Apophis reaction. Serpent's Song. The whole backstory in Threshold. The amazing creepiness of Apophis in Changeling. And, of course, Apophis and his obsession with sholva Teal'c, to the point where he outfitted every single death glider in his possession on the off-chance that it would somehow capture Teal'c.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Okay, yes, point.

I think my brain was thinking more specifics (like we don't really see specific impact of "Serent's Venom" but, yeah, overall we do get to see Teal'c deal with things more than the others (I think Sam is next in seeing repercussions. Not sure if Daniel or Jack is worst.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's exactly how I see Kynthia. She offers the marriage cake; Jack accepts it. She might not have even realized there was a drug involved. Pylops (I think he's called) could have given them the recipe to ensure there would be more generations for experimentation.

So, horrible misunderstanding, yes. Deliberate rape, no. Consider how kindly Jack acts towards her afterwards, and how Kynthia is still quite affectionate.

And yes, I do wish Daniel's rape had gotten proper treatment. OTOH, I always supposed that's why he was so spaced out in Into the Fire - he knew that if he didn't keep it all solidly locked down, he'd be curled in a fetal ball, screaming.