Redial the Gate: some minor bits of meta from Tin Man

[fignewton]

Tin Man. One of the saddest episodes from S1.

"Daniel?"

"Uh... sort of."

Your heart can't help but break for SG-1 there, at the end.

Two interesting thoughts on this week's ep: one regarding Daniel, and one regarding Sam and Teal'c.

All Saint Daniel fanon aside, one of Daniel's most fascinating personality quirks is the dichotomy of his unquestionable empathy and his tendency to allow scientific fascination to overwhelm social niceties. His reaction to Kawalsky's operation and his determination to stay behind in Torment of Tantalus are two of the easiest examples. Right here in Tin Man, though, we get both at once.

It's Daniel who first notices that Teal'c's reactions are off, when Harlan accidently blends Teal'c's mind with that of his symbiote. (He notices later, too, when they're back on Altair.) Daniel watches him for several minutes before asking him directly if he's okay.

"Why?" Teal'c replies.

"Well..." Daniel swallows. "For starters, you've lost your - infant Goa'uld."

"I still feel its presence," Teal'c tells him, and suddenly the concerned friend is overwhelmed by the fascinated scientist.

"Really! That must be like continuing to feel a limb after it's been lost."

It takes Jack's "For crying out loud, Daniel!" to change the topic.

I love this little quirk of Daniel's personality. The care and concern is always there, of course, but it can get subsumed in his enthusiasm.

Then there's the Sam and Teal'c aspect. It's a little thing, and I'm unsure if it hit me because I'm reccing Sam and Teal'c friendship this month or because of the story I wrote that touches on the robots, which would make me a little more sensitive. But when they first discovered their human selves, Jack spent a lot of time staring at his own self, but Sam went straight to Teal'c and peeled off the gag/paralyzer/whatever it was immediately and announced, "Colonel, he's all right," in tones of huge relief. A lot of that is because they just watched Teal'c die, but it's an extra lovely touch to the friendship between Sam and Teal'c.

The real Jack knew Harlan, but didn't know what he'd been doing to them. I'm trying to figure out what Harlan could have possibly told them.

Jack has never been able to tolerate copies of himself - not the robot, not the clone, and he was pretty uncomfortable with the idea of alternate selves. I think it fits his personality marvelously, and it's worth a whole meta essay of its own... but not from me.. :)

Comments

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

I kind of want to write a huge meta essay about how different members of SG-1 react to having doubles. Maybe someday, when I have time to track down every instance of doubles in the canon and watch them together.

And I just want to squish robot!SG-1. I feel so bad for them. After "Double Jeopardy" I hunted down a few different fics that provided them with a happy ending, and I'm always on the prowl for more robot!SG-1 fics.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I would love to read that essay, when you've written it!

I remember hearing in one of the audio commentaries - don't ask me which one! - that in later seasons, they were much better at filming characters talking to themselves, instead of vigorous nodding and hand gestures to suggest that it wasn't filmed twice, or whatever. So seeing robot!Sam nod her head so emphatically definitely made me grin. :)

And yes, robot!SG-1 got such a raw deal. The only question is, did it take them a whole month to start going through the Gate, or were they already at it by the time Daniel went through the mirror the following week?

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

The only question is, did it take them a whole month to start going through the Gate, or were they already at it by the time Daniel went through the mirror the following week?

Heh. As soon as possible - but I think they'd have to have a period of sealing it, just as a precaution. Because it's ultimately not Jack's decision as to whether they send a bomb through - and the NID would take a lot of interest in the robot duplicates. And I wouldn't be completely certain that Hammond would try to defend the robots. So my personal canon is that they sealed it up for maybe a couple of months or so, got the place tidied up, Sam worked on power packs, and then they went.

I don't imagine for a moment that robot!Jack intended to stay put, though.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I was being a bit facetious, yes. Robot!Jack would surely have been canny enough to lull the Earth/NID folks into a sense of security regarding their retirement, so to speak. And, after all, Sam had to invent their portable batteries.