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

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely yes. I actually just said something similar below and then came up and read your comment.

Jack seems to often deal with things (the hard things) (the ones about himself) by very consciously NOT dealing with them. He's very aware of what he's done and what he's capable of, but I think he's decided he's better off not examining them too closely or letting others examine them - that he's almost scared of what he might find (and not like) if he looks to closely at himself.

(I found it really fascinating in "Devil You Know" when we see that Jack wouldn't let Charlie play with toy guns - even squirt guns - which I think is a bit unusual for someone who keeps a gun in his own house. I think Jack back then dealt with things (and still does) with the idea that he does the distasteful stuff so other people don't have to - that he's doing it now and hopefully making the world safe so Charlie won't be a soldier when he grows up (I tend to extrapolate that Jack REALLY didn't want Charlie to follow in his footsteps), that he saves the universe and risks himself because he doesn't want others to have to risk themselves...and, I'm tangenting).

[tejas.livejournal.com]

It's unusual for many folks, but I know quite a few who behave the same way. Interestingly enough, they tend to be military or ex-military. In short, they're people who know VERY well that hand guns serve only one purpose and that's to kill people.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Point - and that does make a LOT of sense.

I guess it's mostly that I feel that military careers often (certainly not always) run in the family - certain families have a lot of people who join the military because it's what you do, like father/mother, like son/daughter (look at Jacob and Sam) and sometimes I really wonder about Jack's background - I've heard there was some developed theory that a judge gave him the choice between going to jail and joining the Air Force, but that never made canon and, regardless, he still chose it for a career and I think it worked really well for him, and yet he seems to very clearly not want it for Charlie. Just...found it interesting.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

I've seen that military or jail in fanon, but never bought it. For one thing, I believe Jack went to the Academy (making colonel at his age, he'd pretty much have had to). That requires quite a bit of conscious effort (I'll never forget all the crap my brother went through to get into Annapolis) not to mention not being in trouble. Trouble with the police would pretty much have ended his academy aspirations. While he still could have enlisted and *maybe* gone to OCS (or the AF equivalent) he would be behind his age cohort among other officers.

As for not wanting it for Charlie, I think that was pretty much a given. Note, too, that this is all *after* his time as a prisoner. He might have changed his mind before Charlie was old enough to make the decision, but I bet it would have been quite a while before he'd be able to accept that his "little boy" (I keep telling my kid that she'll be my "baby girl" when she's forty and she should go on and get over it ;-) should be allowed to risk what he had.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that the "military or jail" thing was something mentioned by someone in the show (writer? producer? director? RDA?) as something they'd plotted or considered or decided or something for Jack's character and then never actually included. It's actually the only way I've seen it mentioned (I'm sure it's in fic, but I haven't come across that fic).

My personal fanon for Jack's backstory is very definitely different from yours - but I seem to remember you take "Brief Candle" to mean Jack is 40 in season one and I place him older, based on the rest of canon, so that would affect things.

Good point about Charlie being born after his time in prison. And, yes, that makes lot of sense and I definitely believe it - but still something I find interesting about his character.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Yep. Jack says he's 40 in Brief Candle. Props are of secondary importance since they are more random in their development (as in, the writers have little to no input).

[happydog57.livejournal.com]

I believe that comes from the novel adaptation of the movie, at least it was used there. According to the novel:

Jack had been the black sheep of a good family. By the time he was 18, he was before the court for a third time and given a choice to enlist or spend a year in prison. It didn't say what his crimes were, just that he was born with "chaos and wildness" in his heart. He ended up being a Special Forces assassin. He hated himself for killing, yet realized he was a very talented assassin. He buried his conscience and started drinking. He was called "Voodoo" because he only came to life when his team was sent out into action.

I don't remember any series canon that indicates either this or the Academy. Jack of the series always seemed like an Academy man to me. There are quite a few differences between the book and movie. I've read speculation that the book must have been based on an early draft of the movie.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Nope. The series pretty much tells us nothing about Jack's background except a couple of times saying he's from Chicago and a cabin in Minnesota (and, of course, Sara and Charlie)

Thanks for pointing out where this might have come from - and, wow, does the novel not look very appealing.

[happydog57.livejournal.com]

I found the book interesting for seeing what things were different and what things were the same as the movie. Jack (and Daniel's) background doesn't take up a lot of the book, but the few paragraphs that are there are interesting.

Jack does soften up during his marriage, he realizes what a gift he has been given and that his wife had saved his life. He quits the Special Forces and becomes an instructor. But it all falls apart for them anyway when their son accidentally shoots himself. They struggle trying to hold together for two years before Jack gets called up to go to Abydos the first time.

I think I, too, prefer the background, what little it was, that we got in the actual movie and the series.