So I’ve spent most of the day studying for midterms, but now it’s bedtime, and that means it’s Stargate time! Something relaxing to sit down to at the end of the day… To just take a load off… Admire the view… of, uh, Teal’c’s body…
Okay, okay, I’ll stop. But I can tell just by looking at this title screen, this is going to be a pretty weird episode. But it’s sci-fi. What else can I expect?
SG-1 is at the Base, and they send an airborne probe of sorts (called a UAV) blasting through the Stargate, off to PJ2-445. They don’t expect there’s an indigenous population. The UAV malfunctions mid-flight and crashes into some kind of white plant. Through the screen, they see a very pale, humanoid man lean down and look into the screen.
There’s your population!
The team goes to the planet, and it looks peaceful enough.
(Side note: Teal’c has his staff weapon again. Haven’t seen it in a little while. I’m curious if it’s still fully functioning since O’Neill took the naquadah, or at least part of it, from the core in “The Fifth Race”… Unless they replenished it.)
Jackson’s allergies are acting up, which isn’t particularly unusual, but it might indicate something. There’s also a bit of funny dialogue:
Teal’c: “Since it is their planet, is it not we who are the aliens?”
Jackson: “The word 'alien' refers to anything characteristic of a very different place or culture. Anything really strange relative from our own perspective.”
O’Neill: “Think we call you alien because you're from Chulak? Ha!”
Oh, O’Neill. You never could resist cracking a joke.
They come to the site of the UAV’s crash and there’s some sort of yellow substance by the plant which it crashed into. Jackson sneezes again (it’s got to be those white plants), and then Teal’c leads them off in the direction of a village-like area. The same man who’d peeked into the UAV’s camera looks up at them, but when Jackson says, “Hi,” he starts to shriek and runs off into one of the dwellings. Several more come out of the dome-like dwellings, and SG-1 approaches.
It turns out that everyone in the village is quite… well, naked. (Not really. As far as I can tell each actor has some sort of thin bodysuit on.) Hey, different strokes for different folks. They circle up around the team and seem to try to mimic their actions. It must be their way of communication, or how they best communicate. Things get a little awkward when they get a little too close and Carter gets her hand sliced retrieving her knife from a particularly curious young alien.
Jackson enters one of the dwellings, and once again they mimic his actions and mouth movements, but no words come out. There’s some significance to the white body paint they all have striped over their bodies, as well, but we’re not sure what it is. You know, they’re really kind of adorable in their seeming naivety and innocence, and it’s even funnier to watch Jackson try and communicate with them.
Back outside, O’Neill’s jumped to the conclusion that maybe they’re a little less evolved than those in SG-1… but maybe not. They’ve gotten the message and they bring out the UAV which had crashed. Jackson sneezes again… and one of them collapses.
Oh no! Killer sneeze!
Suddenly, they all burst into a sort of harmonized vocalization… and then another collapses.
It’s becoming a epidemic now as more collapse. They bring Fraiser and a couple assistants through to assess exactly what’s going on. She figures that it’s not a foreign disease, and if it is, them leaving won’t help. Fraiser and Carter return, the latter to get her hand checked out, with one of the victims in tow.
Teal’c and O’Neill go off to check out one of the other villages when Jack starts to collapse a little. Teal’c’s fine (as always) but I’m not sure it’s all so good with the colonel.
Back in the infirmary on the base, Fraiser runs a CAT scan (since the alien acted very alarmed when she got near him with the ultrasound… hm…) and discovers that his heart is beneath his lungs. That’s… interesting. I wonder how these guys evolved.
On the planet, more are becoming sick. Jackson sees one of the white plants suddenly sprout up and grow, only to sink back in. Teal’c and O’Neill report that the other villages’ inhabitants are ill as well. Jackson and O’Neill start to squabble, and maybe not all is well…
Meanwhile, Fraiser reports that the alien she’s treating isn’t getting better. She voices her concern that SG-1 somehow caused this, and that she’s surprised it hasn’t happened more often.
This is something that’s crossed my mind many times as well. Early in the series, but not so much now, I would often write of a Star Trek-like “Prime Directive” of non-interference. So far SG-1 hasn’t run into a whole lot of problems, but with this it’s gotten pretty serious. I, too, am surprised there haven’t been more repercussions. They don’t really go in trying to fit in with the cultures they encounter (except maybe for Jackson) so, frankly, it’s about time something huge happened.
Carter says it best with, “We can’t just keep trampling through the galaxy with no regard for the damage that we can do.” A bit of a change from the headstrong captain we saw early in the first season. So, now that they’ve screwed up, they’ve got to go fix things.
O’Neill’s becoming more and more irritable, and Jackson as well. They exchange insults – and not the usual joking-around ones – and come to yelling at each other. They seem to snap out of it, and O’Neill’s got a headache, and Jackson just in general isn’t feeling well. They head back to Earth to get checked out and leave Teal’c with the village.
As soon as they get back, though, they start to feel better. It’s got to have something to do with those plants!
Fraiser confirms that there’s “nothing wrong” with them – physically, at least.
The alien has flatlined (and she’s doing chest compressions even though we’ve established that his heart is much lower? Whoops, writers!) and they work desperately to save him.
On the planet, Teal’c witnesses several of the plants sprout up as Jackson had seen them do. He digs into the roots, but as soon as he digs a little deeper into some sort of green substance beneath… he collapses! Oh no! Teal’c! Someone save him! Aaah! Man, why is it always him!?
…Oh wait, it’s usually not. It’s usually O’Neill.
Jack and Daniel are trying to do a little more research, and Jackson starts to rage again. He connects it to the tape of the plants, and Carter of course makes the next step and connects his irritability to… sound! There’s a wavelength they can’t hear, but is being processed in their minds anyways, and that’s what’s affecting them. That wavelength was keeping the aliens alive, and it was somehow connected to the plants.
Teal’c stumbles in through the ‘Gate and his team rushes to help him. He’s all right now, though, and confirms that all the plants are connected through some sort of network, and when the UAV crashed, the wavelength sound changed. The aliens are sound-sensitive, and if they can modify back to the old sound, everything should be right as rain.
They install some frequency emitters and Carter suggests they all watch from a bit of a distance. They do, and slowly but surely, as the aliens vocalize, the plants rise. They ask Carter how she knew there was a symbiotic relationship, and she sheepishly replies, “I talk to my plants, okay?”
Final thoughts… I liked this episode primarily because it dealt with a rather familiar theme: A medical crisis brought on by the introduction of a foreign invader. I say it’s familiar because it’s something we’ve seen in the past and something that continues to be an issue in today’s society. A “higher” society enters into a “lower” one and, though their intentions may be noble, they end up doing far more hurt than harm, and often cannot reverse the process.
I also enjoyed the different sort of species. For so many episodes we meet species that at least speak, if not entirely in English (though they usually do), which is great, but not all that interesting. I find it far more fascinating to watch them struggle through communicative lines, especially during the heat of a crisis. However, I do confess that if they had to go through something like this every episode it might get a little tedious.
Decent episode with a few good spots. And just for the record:
Yes, Carter does indeed speak to her plants.
PREDICTION/REFLECTION THINGY
(Carter talks to her plants as she waters them.)
(She has a watering can and a hose nearby, and she’s going through her front garden.)
Carter: And how are you, my lovely bee balm? You’re looking awfully chipper today. (She waters the pink plant.) Oh, and spiderwort, I thought you’d never perk up. Now be nice to the blanket flower, I just planted that one and-
(There’s some rustling in nearby bushes. She freezes and slowly replaces the watering can in her hands for the hose. She twists the dial and sends a jet of water blasting into the bushes. Jackson and O’Neill tumble out.)
Carter: (Outraged) What the-?! What are you guys doing in my bushes?!
Jackson: We wanted to know if you really talked to your plants!
O’Neill: It was all Teal’c’s idea!
(But he’s already laughing his way out of the scene.)
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