Redialing Learning Curve: Jack and kids

[fignewton]

redial_the_gate does Learning Curve this week, with a delightful recap from kalquessa. There's lots of entertaining discussion going on at her post, so I'll just mention a few things that make me squee, and a couple of little niggling questions, before getting to what I really want to talk about.

What makes me squee!

Daniel with a smudged face, working with tools, all giddy with excitement with discovery, wearing his bandana. That alone gives this ep a 9.5, right there.

Sam's drawing skills. Her definition of fun. Falling asleep at her desk, because she's stayed up all night to learn about naquadah reactors. That's my Sam. :)

Teal'c and Tomin. I love how he's so heartbreakingly gentle with him.

Hammond rocks, naturally! So does Janet!

An honestly fair ethical dilemma, with a copout ending that's almost as bad as Red Sky, but much more forgivable just because Jack and Merrin are so cute. :)

Now for a question or three:

Why don't we see the Averium's positive results? Where's Kalan's knowledge of reactors? Why, after Tomin goes through the Averium, don't we see Kalan perfectly capable of discussing the Goa'uld with Teal'c himself?

And why can't they keep a thousand or so nanites within the Urrone kids' brains, so they don't lose the knowledge they learned? Maybe they can't download other Urrone children's knowledge, but why can't they keep their own?

Do you think Jack expected the outcome? Do you think he realized that teaching the concept of "fun" to Merrin would translate to teaching it to all of Orban? Did Merrin know herself?

And here's what I want to discuss:

Jack's affinity for children is a grand Stargate tradition, going all the way back to the movie where he bonded with Skaara. The angsty poignancy of seeing how good he is with kids and knowing he's lost Charlie turns this quirk from a cutesy one to a wrenching one that the writers don't hesitate to milk over and over again. Not that we mind, heh. There's Skaara in the pilot, Nefreyu in The Nox, Cassie (who won't talk to anyone but Jack when Sam gets Jonlinar'd), Charlie-the-Reetou, Laira's kid, and Nevin in Revisions. We never see Jack and Shifu interact in real time, except for Jack's endearingly bumbling attempts to translate Shifu's first statement when they arrive at the SGC. If you want, you can add his gentleness with Kynthia from Brief Candle, because despite her figure, she was certainly child-like in her emotional maturity and comprehension. Reece was an interesting exception, and as Aelfgyfu writes so eloquently in her A Time for Killing/...and a Time for Healing fics, I don't think Jack allowed himself to see Reece-the-child at all, because he needed to see her as machinelike robot in order to stay objective enough to deal with her if necessary. He's also rather lousy at dealing with himself in Fragile Balance, but really, Jack has never been good with alternate selves. :)

So here in Learning Curve, we have Jack bonding with Merrin (love the rocket scientist discussion, and how he deflects the age question!) and a lovely rapport with the local schoolkids. But I'm fascinated by how Jack reacts so very differently to the Urrone children than the rest of the team.

Sam (and Hammond!) and Merrin. After the initial surprise at the identification of the naquadah reactor expert, Hammond treats Merrin with the same formal courtesy he would give any visitor to the SGC. And Sam - Sam is marvelous. She clearly remembers that Merrin in a child - her discussions of anything outside the reactor are on a young level, and she's unembarrassed of her stick figures - but within Merrin's area of expertise, Sam treats her as an equal, or moreso.

Teal'c and Tomin. I love how Teal'c, after that first startled blink, converses with Tomin with grave courtesy and intelligence, without the slightest condenscension or hint of patronizing. It makes the revelation of Tomin's regression so much more heartbreaking. (As I mentioned in my comments at the recap, I found Tomin's situation much more poignant than Merrin's.) There is still a hint of protectiveness, I think - consider Teal'c's almost threatening manner when he insists on seeing Tomin - but Teal'c interacts with Tomin at the adult level he deserves.

Daniel. Oh, I adore Daniel, who has no initial problem with the concept of apprentices in the first place (all pre-serise fanon aside, I do think Daniel went on at least one dig or two with his parents, and probably saw plenty of children doing work without finding it odd or exploitive, and Abydos certainly put its kids to work). Daniel, who in his squee at archeological discovery doesn't even blink twice at discussing it on an adult level with the Urrone kids. Daniel, who may hate what's happening to the kids, but grants them the right to make their own decisions.

::clears throat:: Er. I have never, ever pretended to be even remotely objective about Daniel. Just so you all know...

Now, Jack. I don't know if it's because he doesn't interact with the children on a formal level - he's the guy in charge of the experts in this ep, not an expert himself (although why aren't the Orbanians interested in Tau'ri warfare methods?). But we never, not once, see Jack treating Merrin or any of the others as an equal.

The contrast between Jack's reactions and the rest of the team's fascinates me. This isn't new for Jack - back in the movie, he nearly bit Skaara's head off when he first tried to touch a gun, and later, when Kawalsky and Ferretti suggested that Skaara and the boys could help, Jack furiously ordered them all to go home. That has its roots in Charlie, of course. But here in Learning Curve, as in Show and Tell, it's clear that Jack has great difficulty with disassociating a child's body with the consciousness within.

So, putting aside the a-little-too-good-to-be-true ending, who had the right attitude here? The team, or Jack? Do you see as Jack being patronizing of people who deserve better, or Jack as being the only one to reach to the lost child within each Urrone?

And again, as I write this, I circle back to his grim, almost cold treatment of Reece, where he did make the distinction between a child's body and emotions, and the danger that she represented to Earth and the SGC. Did the stark difficulty of forcing himself to shoot what looked like a little girl contribute to the aching pain of that final scene between Jack and Daniel?

(On a completely different and almost facetious tangent, writing this meta makes me wonder, for the first time, how Hammond et al really would treat a young "aware" version of Daniel - the one that appears in so many kidfics. I'd like to think that George would continue to call him "Dr. Jackson," and that the rest of the SGC, after getting over their initial reactions, would follow Hammond's lead and continue to give him the courtesy his intelligence and expertise deserves... but that Jack would have a lot of trouble seeing beyond the outer appearance to the adult mind within.)

I welcome everyone's thoughts. :)

ETA: Thanks, suzannemarie, for pointing out that I'd forgotten Loren from The Light. The boy was an incredible actor, too - the scene where he finally breaks down and tells Jack the truth about his parents is nothing short of amazing.

Also? I'm going to post and then not get back to my computer for twenty hours more often. Because you people had a lot of fun while I was gone. :)

ETA2: And Redbyrd points out that Jack, when he's not worried about Goa'uld cyanide-laced teeth, is pretty friendly to Ry'ac, too. No dog, but a baseball glove as compensation!

Comments

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Just about everyone else seems to have made the assumption as you, so it's clearly my fault, not yours. On the other hand, it's garnered a lot of fascinating discussion, so I'm not complaining too much. :)