Well, that last episode was.. kind of interesting, but not particularly enlightening. Here’s hoping that SG-1 will step it back up (as they always do).
The opening scene is – WHOA EPIC SPACE FIGHT!! Over a planet! A planet I’m not sure what it is! But there’s a Goa’uld Death Glider! It crashes onto the planet, and some people come and check it out.
Dude! It’s Skaara! And he sounds like himself!
Okay, yes. This is going to be LIGHT YEARS better. I can already tell.
Back on base… a cat comes through?
Hold on! That’s the cat that Carter gave to the Tollans!
Narim does indeed come through the Stargate, and he wants them (or Jack, at least) to come to a trial of sorts… for Skaara!
So SG-1 goes with Narim to the new Tollan homeworld, Tollana, where the trial is to take place. Their weapons are disabled, which of course upsets O’Neill, but Narim insists they won’t need them. They are introduced to High Chancellor Travell (Chancellor… that reminds me of Klingons so strongly), who explains the system. A Seeker is like a defendant, and the Archon is their attorney, and there’s two on each side. There is also one neutral Archon.
They go to see Skaara, but it’s Klorel who greets them first. However, the Tollan have created a device which makes it impossible for one to silence the other, so Skaara can speak at will, too. Klorel’s not happy to see them, but Skaara sure is, and he chooses both Jackson and O’Neill as his Archons. It turns out that Skaara/Klorel had been fleeing from a Horus Guard fleet, which was of course destroyed by the Tollans, and they are the ones who rescued Skaara. Heru’ur is still alive, but two of his motherships are gone (go Tollans!).
Of course, Klorel gets an Archon, as well, since the case argued will be whether or not Klorel gets to keep his host. If Skaara has the better argument, he will be freed of the Goa’uld, but if not, then I assume Klorel will take over again. Klorel’s Archon will be Lord Zipacna, one of Apophis’ underlords. And, yup, he’s a Goa’uld, much to O’Neill’s dismay.
The third, and neutral, Archon is… Lya! Of the Nox!
(Say hi to Quark for me!)
O’Neill is now convinced that this will automatically go in their favour because Lya likes them… But I don’t think it’s going to be quite that simple.
Jackson and O’Neill enter into the triad (what the Tollans call a trial) room and tells Teal’c and Carter to keep an eye on the Serpent Guards while they’re in session.
The first argument that Zipacna makes is that since the Abydosians were enslaved in the first place, Klorel merely took what was rightfully his. Skaara protests and says that since his body was stolen, his life was also stolen. Besides, they hadn’t believed themselves to be slaves at that time.
Zipacna responds to this by comparing what animals are to humans, to what humans are to the Goa’uld – a lesser species. Jackson and O’Neill argue that despite the fact that intelligence is subjective, the Goa’uld never really had any knowledge in the first place – they merely stole it.
Travell is getting a bit irritated with the wandering of the topic, so O’Neill tries to get it back on topic. Skaara tells them how his existence was worse than death. Zipacna insists that nothing of the host survives, but we all know that’s not true..! Zipacna insists that “Skaara” is merely a shadow of a personality of what he was. Even Lya disagrees with this assessment.
Meanwhile, Teal’c and Carter are keeping an eye on the Serpent Guards… now what are they doing with that weapons array? Later, they let Jackson and O’Neill know that they were “marking” (in a sense) the ion beams. Carter thinks that this trial is merely a façade for what Lord Zipacna is truly planning – a defense to wipe out the Tollan weapons all at once and then wipe them out.
Carter has a bit of an awkward moment with Narim (remember they had a little bit of a relationship?) and she explains how she has a connection with Jolinar, and how her feelings are all messed up. Oh, Carter, you and your feelings… I thought we were done with this. She then lets him know that, oh, by the way, the Goa’uld are probably planning to attack your planet.
Zipacna, of course, denies everything, and the Tollans can’t find anything different, so they brush it off as SG-1 trying to sway the triad against Klorel. They’re so sure of themselves that they refuse to take any precautions aside from having the cannons there. They are all ordered to drop the matter.
Teal’c is still convinced that the Goa’uld will attack (and he’s probably right), so he disobeys O’Neill’s orders and goes to see… Lya? He tells her what he thinks, and when she insists that she can’t help him, because the Nox do not “fight”, per se, and merely create illusions, his reply?
“Precisely.”
Oh, what are you up to now, Teal’c?
(By the way, I just feel like saying this, but Lya is downright adorable. She’s just cute. It’s so hard to take her seriously despite how wise she truly is, hehe.)
The triad resumes, and Zipacna rightfully says that since there is no death penalty on Tollana, and Klorel would die without Skaara as his host, there is no point to this trial. Since, as O’Neill and Jackson proved, something of the host does indeed survive, the trial can really only rule in Klorel’s favour.
Aw, crap.
O’Neill thinks that since life as a slave is not truly life at all, they could remove Klorel and find him another host. Easier said than done, I’d say, just because I sure as heck wouldn’t want him attached to my spinal cord…
Narim, Teal’c, and Carter enter, and they report that a Goa’uld mothership is near the orbit of Tollana. Zipacna insists that, oh, it’s just there to pick him and Klorel.
Yeah, right!
And now it’s voting time. Klorel/Skaara are brought in. Zipacna obviously rules in favour of Klorel, and O’Neill and Jackson in favour of Skaara, and Lya, after careful consideration for both parties…
…agrees that a life of slavery is not “life”, and that Skaara has priority.
Then Zipacna whips out a communication sphere and says something and YOU TACKLE THAT SUCKER, TEAL’C! YOU TACKLE HIM LIKE NDAMUKONG SUUUUUUUHH!!
(Hey, when’s the next Detroit Lions game? Oh, wait, still watching Stargate.)
Teal’c knocks him out and they run off to go see what the heck is going on! And it’s pandemonium! The Goa’uld lock onto all of the ion cannons and… destroy them.
And then the Death Gliders come.
Lya and Teal’c take them to… a hidden cannon! Lya used her abilities to hide a cannon, and so Teal’c takes the controls and guns down the two Death Gliders and then takes down the mothership. YEAH! Go Teal’c! You show ‘em!
Travell is upset that Teal’c disregarded her warning not to pursue the matter… but only for a short time. She ultimately thanks him and Lya for saving the planet, but there’s not really anything she can give SG-1 in return, given their own Prime Directive of sorts.
The Tok’ra successfully remove the symbiote from Skaara, and the young man runs out to embrace O’Neill as himself for the first time in a long time. (Sniff! So beautiful!)
Final thoughts… All right, now this is what I was looking for! This I dig! It’s got recurring characters, a conclusion (or at least continuation) of a character arc, hugs, epic technology, explosions, the Nox, and hugs. But mainly I liked the hugs. (I SHALL GIVE YOU A HUG, TEAL’C.) I mean the character development.
No, in all seriousness, this was a great episode. I really love when we get to see characters again (Skaara, Narim, and Lya for example) because it lets us know that the writers haven’t forgotten about them; that they’re still relevant and important to the overall story. The Tollans once again are adhering to their prime directive of not giving technology to the Tau’ri, but it’s still neat to see it. I loved that device that could give equal control to both the Goa’uld and the host. Kind of forcing a Tok’ra-like relationship.
But more than that, I really enjoyed seeing the triad court system. Almost felt like an episode of Boston Legal (ironic, considering that the original Daniel Jackson, James Spader, of course went on to star in that show) but no complaints here. The ethics debate was incredible (what is living? Is slavery living? Is it a true “life” as we know it?) and the inclusion of Lya as the “neutral third party” was really good. Of course they ended up ruling in Skaara’s favour, but we got a little insight into the Nox and Tollan we didn’t have before.
Even the little passive vs. active role in war tidbit we saw as a B-story/conclusion was very interesting. What I thought of was how the Tollan and Nox are (peaceful, largely pacifist societies) compared to the Tok’ra and Asgard (races that actively fight against the Goa’uld, or at least challenge them significantly; certainly the former, anyways). The Tau’ri (specifically SG-1 and the SGC in general) are sort of the caught-in-the-middle, not-quite-as-advanced race who’ve become a bigger thorn in the Goa’uld’s side than they probably ever wanted to be. It’s just interesting to see how all these different people work similarly and differently against their common foe.
And lastly, I liked that everyone got at least a bit of the spotlight in this episode. For a while there it seemed like Jackson and especially Teal’c got more than a little snubbed by the writers in terms of activity in the plots, but it’s evening out. (Thanks, writers!)
REFLECTION/PREDICTION THINGY
(Skaara, O’Neill, and Jackson reflect on the past… oh… too many years.)
O’Neill: Oy… All those years of chasing you around the galaxy, and all it took was one crash onto Tollana and a triad to get you back.
Skaara: I was indeed lucky, O’Neill! And I have you and Daniel to thank for it! (He laughs) I still remember when you first came to Abydos.
Jackson: I remember when you led that band of other kids to save us from Ra.
O’Neill: Heh, I remember you trying and failing miserably to smoke a cigarette.
Skaara: Those were horrible!
I'm interested in the way the two peaceful races handle opposition ...
ReplyDeleteThe Tollan build an automated defence system and warn invaders about it, but don't fire the weapon themselves; so in a way they are not directly responsible for their enemies' destruction. (See the robots in the original "The Day the Earth Stood Still" movie ... Klaatu barada nikto!).
The Nox don't build weapons (as far as we know), but are willing to prevent the Tollan weapon from being destroyed -- knowing that it will then destroy a Goa'uld ship. "That's a pretty fine line you didn't cross", as Sam says.
In the original Nox episode, they also prevented enemy races from harming each other. Maybe a peaceful race without the advanced technology of the Nox would step into the line of fire to protect one race from the other?
It's worked in human history sometimes, when someone was willing to sacrifice their life to make warring parties come to their senses. But it doesn't seem like a very good survival trait. A low-tech race that believed so strongly in peace would probably be wiped out or become slaves of the Goa'uld.
But it's still the position I lean towards -- and it makes a difference to add God to the whole picture. He tends to side with those who have little power.