Redial the Gate: Holiday

[fignewton]

How very lovely to have time for extra redial_the_gate squee!

Tomorrow is Holiday. I have some utterly frivolous observations, and one rather unhappy one under the cut.

First of all, why is ruthless!Daniel so beautiful? When a cold and pitiless Machello is staring down at dying Daniel... I mean, think of Daniel calmly watching the screens in Absolute Power. There's just a certain... something there. I'm not complaining, mind. Just wondering. :)

Sam and Daniel friendship squee for the absolute win in this one. And TEAM! Oh, how much they do for each other. And Sam is so strong and capable here! And Janet and Hammond!

Some of the best acting ever as CJ acts like Jack and RDA acts like Teal'c and RDA and MS do spot-on perfect imitations of each other.

They did such a fantastic makeup job here in Holiday that I didn't know that MS played Machello until I saw a comment to that effect online. Wow. So how come they're so awful at it in other episodes?

On a slightly more creepy note, did anyone else get the impression that Machello-in-Daniel was a little too interested in Sam?

Now for the more sobering thought...

In this S2 episode, Hammond puts the welfare of one of his people before the possibility of huge technological gains. I love him for it, and not just because the person in question was Daniel!

But I can't help thinking that in later seasons, the choices would have been different.

I think of Convenant, and the deliberate deconstruction and destruction of an essentially innocent civilian. I think of S9 and that seriously awful memory machine, which was featured again three times before the end of the series. There are many other examples that suggest that the SGC's moral compass went south as time passed.

Yes, there was moral imbiguity in earlier seasons, too. Secrets springs instantly to mind, and all the NID/Maybourne machinations. But none of these came from the SGC itself, and they were presented as deplorable.

Thoughts? Disagreements? Should Hammond have looked for volunteers, or someone suicidal who wouldn't have minded swapping? Kinsey, no doubt, would've snatched someone homeless off the street and offered him to Machello on a silver platter. How do you think Machello's offer would have been treated in later seasons of the show?

And while we're on the subject of Redial... C'mon, folks. No one has any fanworks to suggest for The Fifth Race? Scandalous! Go rec some! Or write some, even. :)