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

[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.