Redial the Gate: Legacy

[fignewton]

redial_the_gate is up to Legacy, the episode which seems to have been written  for the express purpose of indulging in some Daniel whumping and full team hurt/comfort. lokei has written a nicely entertaining recap. Go and enjoy!

In the meantime, some random silly questions and one serious one:

Someone has got to explain the fascination that certain Daniel fans have with his toes. There is a website out there dedicated to his toes. I mean, I've always made it clear that I will never harsh anyone's squee (even if they inexplicably fangirl Maybourne), but - his toes?

On the other hand, blue bathrobes in S3, blue scrubs in S10... clearly the Boys at Bridge have our best interests in mind. :)

If they have now have multiple Goa'uld killers safely in storage at Area 51 - safe, that is, as long as no one stores the tablet together with the page turner devices - why do we never ever hear of them again?

Annoyed at the plot holes that dragged Daniel into a padded cell, even if it did give us bare Daniel toes? Wonder no longer! I have written my first ever parody meta, over at Redial. :)

And on a more serious level, I'm fascinated that the hallucinations that Sam and Daniel suffered both hinged on seeing a close friend as Goa'uld - Daniel watching a reply of sorts of Hathor implanting Jack, and Janet seeing Sam with glowing eyes and phlanged voice, as if she'd failed to rescue her from Jolinar's possession. Do you think that the buggers were actually digging into their victims' psyches for the visions they dreaded most, or was it a manifestation related to the bugger's basic function as Go'auld killers?

Comments

[maevebran.livejournal.com]

I think the toes thing come fronm the rare appearance. I think we see them in Maternal Instinct, Fallen (but that is from a distance) maybe Lifeboat and possibly if you look hard enough at the end of the Shroud. Personally I think he has nicely shaped feet but I'm more of a hands and finger girl.

Legacy is my favorite eppisode for the vunerable look of Daniel in all white in that padded cell. It just calls to me.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Sam's toes are equally rare in appearance, yet you don't see people writing barefoot Sam fics in pajamas. At least, I don't think you do...

MS does vulnerable as well as crazy, yes. Twofer for the win!

[maevebran.livejournal.com]

I think the ;ack of barefoot Sam fetish is because, lets face it, most fanfic writers are female and therefore more inclined to fantisize about male characters.=)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Okay, then, Jack's toes. Or Teal'c's. CJ has such a beautifully shaped skull - bet his feet are lovely, too.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Actually, I saw a barefoot Sam in pjs fic. I can't remember where. I don't think I finished reading it. Jack was involved, and I think I decided it really wasn't gen after all and headed for the hills.

I think the buggers just triggered a combination of free-form hallucination and anxiety; I think it wasn't so much that they dug into their victims' minds so much as that what Daniel and Janet fear most came to the surface. Much as I can be anxious about one thing and then have a nightmare about a totally different anxiety.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Hee! Maybe barefoot Sam hasn't bled into gen fic, the way barefoot Daniel has...

I initially thought like you: that it was free-form hallucinations, manifesting as their greatest terrors. Daniel saw Jack getting snaked again. Janet saw her best friend as a Goa'uld, either Jolinar or another snake.

But I'm still intrigued by the possibility that the hallucinations were Goa'uld-oriented because of the buggers' primary function. It's not as Janet couldn't have just as easily hallucinated Sam bleeding to death, for example.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Please never point me to that website. I...think I have a foot anti-fetish (anti-foot fetish?) I...no...I just don't get it.

Was that the only other Goa'uld killing page turner device? Like they had the Linvris one, with the last remaining one going into Daniel, and then there's the Area 51 one that jumped into Janet and company?

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I have forgotten the URL, I assure you... :)

They did have lots of PTDs at Area 51 - it was the sheer number of them listed in the Machello manifest, in fact, that made the team realize that they must be their land mines.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Heh. One thing to do before writing up my meta, actually REWATCH Legacy. :-D

Then, that's pretty silly, isn't it? Maybe they're with the zats with the disappearing function!

[dunv-i.livejournal.com]

Do you think that the buggers were actually digging into their victims' psyches for the visions they dreaded most, or was it a manifestation related to the bugger's basic function as Go'auld killers?

I sort of think neither. I thought that the hallucinations were a side effect of the buggers, and the fact that they were similar was unsurprising soncidering what they do.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

So you're suggesting the hallucinations come from the victims' minds and fears, but not necessarily their worst ones?

[sg-betty.livejournal.com]

Toes? What toes? Are there toes there?
http://pics.livejournal.com/sg_betty/pic/00005e9w/
;)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have no particular objection to Daniel's toes. It's the obsessions with them that leaves me blinking. :)

[sg-betty.livejournal.com]

I was clearly too oblique. What I meant was that, in this picture anyway, I don't even notice Daniel's toes, as there is so much more Daniel to look at...

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Hee! I concede that there were probably any number of Daniel fangirls who were disappointed, on rewatching, that this ep took place pre-appendectomy. :)

[randomfreshink.livejournal.com]

Having dealt with someone who's been having hallucinations, they just come from stuff that's in there, and then they get twisted. So it's like dreaming--only you really don't know you're making it all up in your head. And the brain manufactures evidence that it's real--such as full auditory and visual input that no one else can see.

So, not surprising that these guys hallucinate things that are burried in their experiences and subsconsciousness.

As for Janet and the doc--I'm not so down on them for not figureing out this is alien tech. To me it works that this is Mackenzie's specialty, and he's been waiting for this to show up--so the fault really is his. He demonstrates the classic 'jump ahead because here's the proof he's been looking for' instead of staying with theory as theory.

Janet may have more experience with weird stuff, but she's an MD, doesn't have the specialty in psych, AND she's outranked by Mackenzie. And what else are they going to do--lock Daniel up in a holding cell on the base? Or have the fun of putting him in restraints again--which worked so well when he broke lose and broke some bones, and then shot up the place. There is some justification here in being a little cautious, for the benefit of the guy who is acting like he's going nuts, too, in getting him to a facility that can better contain the crazy guy. (And it really is justified in how far the tech pushes him into the insanity.)

As to not touching these things again--well, I sure as heck wouldn't be too interested in letting the buggers lose again. You can't contain them, so you'd have to get the Goa'uld to use one in order to get the damn thing into someone (that or you have to infect a person, and then shove them at the Goa'uld).

What's interesting to me is the crazy-making behavior in non-hosts. Given Machello's genius, this has to be intentional--so does that mean a Goa'uld would want the crazy person brought to them? Are the Goa'uld facinated by personality abnormalities?

On a brighter note--there is just something about how oftne Daniel does end up barefoot. He's barefoot back in Need, too -- maybe its that whole not really military and willing to throw off the uniform for just about any reason.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'll buy that Mackenzie has had certain pet theories and he's delighted to be "proven" right. But I don't buy that he's incompetent or anti-civilian or a secret plant of the NID trying to get rid of Daniel... all of which, yes, I have seen with varying degrees of frequency in fanfic.

Is Janet still outranked by Mackenzie? I know she's a captain in S1, but she does get promoted to major at some point. Not sure when. Does a more senior major automatically outrank of major who was promoted at a later date? And how does Janet's status as Daniel's primary doctor affect the equation?

The problem with the alternates you suggest is that there really is no reason to keep Daniel locked up, for his own good or for others. He hasn't displayed any violence other than trying to yank a non-existent Goa'uld out of Jack's neck. Rydra Wong goes into excellent detail in the comments on the meta post at Redial.

But I do like your theory that the hallucinatory effects are deliberate, as a way of delivering the package, so to speak, to the main target. Why would the Goa'uld want to let someone who is apparently insane get up close and personal? Ravings could be interpreted as prophecy in cultures that are Goa'uld influenced, maybe? And the local Goa'uld would want to take the opportunity to nudge those ravings in the right direction by summoning the "prophet" for a personal consulation?

Barefoot Daniel. I won't buy it as not really military until you point me to an example when he was barefoot willingly. In Need and here in Legacy, that would be a no. At least in The Light it was his personal (albeit alien-influenced) choice to stay in his sleepwear, but even that is pushing it.

Aha! Maternal Instinct!

Any more?

[randomfreshink.livejournal.com]

Mackenzie as "incompetent or anti-civilian or a secret plant of the NID trying to get rid of Daniel" so does not fly. To make that work you have to ignore that he really is responsible for getting Daniel home from Nem's world. (No hypnosis, no rescue.) Also, if Mackenzie were any of the above, he get the perfect opportunity to keep Daniel doped up, but instead makes the call that reveals Teal'c is sick -- and I've got to believe he's the one who releases Daniel after that.

So...yes, mistake made, but the guy makes good on it.

He's also consulted by Janet in Lifeboat (just a reference)--and I don't think she'd do that EVER if she thought he was an idiot.

Now, given my own experience with medical profession--strictly on the outside, Janet's status as primary doctor wouldn't matter. Mackenzie is the specialist in brain stuff, so he has the greater knowledge--she'd have to defer to him on that. A psychiatrist is also an MD -- so he'd have both medical qualifications as well as having this be his area. (In dealing with my mum's doctors, primary care always deferred to specialist, who had the greater specific knowledge.)

Also, as an MD, I think his is a doctor who does out-rank Janet (there's a scene with Mackenzie in uniform at one point -- maybe it's in Fire & Water -- and it looks like birds on his shoulders, making him a colonel) so it seems like he'd be able to argue both greater knowledge and skill and experience. Janet would actually be a bit of an idiot not to at least listen to him--and there's physical data to back up his theory, and nothing to back up Daniel's "ghost" theory.

So...my bet is the only argument to make after Daniel's lunge at Jack and collapse is that Daniel either stays in Iso room under Janet's care. (And she lacks the speciality to deal with this.) Or Daniel gets moved to Academy hospital where Mackenzie can better monitor him. It's noted that Mackenzie doesn't get over to the SGC on a regular basis, so the transfer makes sense from the standpoint of the diagnosis is gate-induced schizophrenia. Really, the thinking at this stage is that Daniel's only hope for recovery is Mackenzie and years of drug treatmens, so they might as well start right off.

If you look at it from Mackenzie's view--without knowledge that something went into Daniel--it really does make sense to try and get Daniel some kind of early treatment that might better balance his brain chemistry. (Wouldn't suprise me if Mackenzie had some pet ideas on treatment, too.)

Now, is padded room overkill? Maybe--or maybe Mackenzie's trying to remove stimulus as part of treatment to see if he can get any kind of immediate correction. He'd be still thinking "gate-induced," therefore, a unique case. And possibly correctable (I've seen just how much meds can mess with someone's brain chemistry--and it's pretty damn amazing, and a little scary. I've a friend who has to take her meds for manic depression, and you always know when she's gone off them.)

For the Goa'uld, yeah could be prophet stuff--that always works well with any religion.

However, we know Goa'uld have messed around with Ancient tech (Ancients even put safeguards on their tech). So maybe they're thinking 'hey, could be someone who got Ancient tech downloaded--maybe we should check them out.' So, my bet is a more pratical awareness that there's tech out there that can totally mess with you head. We've seen repeatedly, too, that Goa'uld have no problems having slaves hauled in for a close look--very arrogant of them that they're invulnerable that way. So it's really a clever device to get to these guys.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Mackenzie is an MD, yes. In fact, he's the only qualified guy on base when Apophis first comes through, because he does the autopsy on the dead Jaffa.

And, as you yourself point out, he performs the MRI on Daniel in Lifeboat, and identifies a dozen different personalities.

I will grant you the specialist vs. primary doctor, but not that Daniel needed to be locked away in a padded cell. It's just too extreme for me.

On the other hand - yes, Goa'uld arrogance working against them. Yes, I can see Machello enjoying the irony of that.

[lokei.livejournal.com]

Can't say as I understand the toes thing myself. There are plenty of other parts of Daniel's anatomy aspects of Daniel's character that I'd rather spend my time investigating. I think feet are just plain weird looking, and attractive-weird is only a small step up from unattractive-weird. *wry grin* I think it's just the connections of barefooted-ness with vulnerability, intentional or otherwise, that make it so popular. In modern context, someone barefoot is usually relaxing, in a situation where they're not going to have to run away, or do anything strenuous. So there's a kind of invitation inherent in bare feet, or something. I'm more of an eyes/hands person, though, so I'm guessing.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Considering the usual fanon habit to make Daniel more weak and child-like, your suggestion re vulnerability makes a lot of sense, yes.

Eyes and expressiveness are my personal favorites. Like you, I'll leave the toes for others... and take the rest. ;)